Growsari, TESDA partner to promote digitalization

MANILA, Philippines — Tech startup Growsari has partnered with the Women’s Center of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to enable sari-sari stores and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to adapt to digitalization and empower them using technology.

“Starting January 2023, Growsari will be part of the iSTAR program of TESDA as an access to resources to all graduates of the program,”Growsari said in a statement yesterday.

In partnership with Coca Cola Philippines, TESDA’s iSTAR Program builds on the success of the Sari-sari Store Training and Access to Resources (STAR) program under the TESDA Women’s Center (TWC).

The program aims to train women micro entrepreneurs and give them access to different resources to grow their businesses.

Through the program, over 200,000 women are taught on how to start their small business.

Growsari said it would teach the graduates on the benefits of e-commerce technology.

“We’re very excited to launch this partnership with TWC as Growsari strives to strengthen its commitment to uplift the grassroot MSMEs of the country,”Growsari chief marketing officer MaiMai Madrid Punzalan said.

“Growsari will make it easier for them to run and further grow their business by addressing their daily struggles of procurement, profit maximization and access to working capital,”she said.

According to the tech startup, graduates from the iSTAR program will undergo different lessons on how to use the platform to procure their physical goods from Growsari, unlock additional revenue streams with digital products such as load, bills and cash-in, whilst leveraging their credit line for working capital.

In addition, Growsari will educate them on demand generation tactics with their customers through competitive pricing and exclusive promos.

“TESDA Women Center is happy to have Growsari as one of the resource partners for all our iSTAR graduates. This will boost their morale and help them adjust to the digital landscape and apply the lessons in our digitalization module,” TWC chief Angelica Gonzales said.

Growsari said it looks forward to continuously developing and creating innovative ways to empower sari-sari stores and MSMEs in the Philippines.

“Eventually, Growsari aspires to serve more than 1.1 million sari-sari stores nationwide and help those new micro entrepreneurs in the making. Growsari can be their true partner in transforming their small sari-sari stores to be comprehensive neighborhood service hubs, making them SuperTindera heroes of their community,” Punzalan said.

Growsari is a business-to-business ordering and store solutions platform. It provides affordable, on-demand inventory, and working capital credit lines, as well as integrated multiple microservices such as telco load, bills pay, e-commerce, wifi, and other e-services, allowing store-owners to maximize their capital in one wallet and easily expand their business.