IdeaSpace startups cap 6-month incubation program with ‘Demo Day’

MANILA, Philippines - Ten early-stage startups backed by IdeaSpace Foundation Inc., the largest tech startup incubator in the Philippines, recently completed their six-month incubation period that culminated in a Venture Capital and Demo Day at the Asian Institute of Management.

During the Demo Day, the 10 teams showcased the products of a half-year of intensive training, rigorous mentorship, and thorough business development that gave birth to 10 innovative technology solutions addressing some of the Philippines’ pressing issues in the areas of transportation, agriculture, energy, healthcare, and innovation, among others.

The IdeaSpace Demo Day was part of the activities for Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013, a weeklong celebration aiming to promote entrepreneurship and was observed in more than 150 countries worldwide.

The startups’ presentations were witnessed by a number of global and local venture capitalists, investors and business leaders, including Derek Wong, a former Digital Health Investor from Burill and Co. in San Francisco, USA; Yasu Seo, regional manager of IMJ Fenox in Indonesia; Joan Yao, investment manager for Southeast Asia of LGT Venture Philanthropy; and Jojo Flores, vice president for operations of Plug and Play Tech Center in California.

The 10 pioneering startups that “graduated” from the IdeaSpace incubation program include:

• Aqua Powered Solutions — Low-cost water purification machine using nano technology;

• Arthrologic — Knee-joints focused on the Asian market;

• DateCola — Natural-enriched beverage out of dates;

• PortfolioMNL — Job site for creative professionals;

• PGRS — Power-generating rumble strips;

• PinoyTravel — Provincial bus reservation system;

• mobKard — Mobile promos on the go using analytics;

• Tech4Health — Monitoring chronic patients via SMS and apps;

• TimeFree — Virtual queuing system for retail and financial services; and

• WeGen — New more efficient windmill design.

 Among these startups, PinoyTravel (www.pinoytravel.com.ph), which aims to revolutionize domestic travel by bus in the Philippines, is one of those which have commercially launched their services to the public.

PinoyTravel enables commuters to check bus trip schedules and seat availability in real-time, and book and purchase their bus tickets online to avoid physically queuing in bus stations.

Aurora Soriano, CEO of PinoyTravel, said they aim to convince the country’s 130 million bus passengers a year to shift to Web or mobile booking and eliminate the need to line up at bus stations just to purchase tickets.

Some of these startups have also participated in global technopreneurship tilts and were recognized for their innovative technology solutions. WeGen, for example, emerged as finalist in the recent IBM SmartCamp ASEAN 2013 in Kuala Lumpur and the Intel APEC Challenge in Taiwan.

Several of these startups have also filed patents for their novel creations with the Philippines’ Intellectual Property Office.

Earl Martin Valencia, president of IdeaSpace and head for corporate development of Smart Communications Inc., one of the companies supporting the IdeaSpace program, said the criteria for selecting business startups to support are quite simple: “Are they really solving a really big need in the world?”

“Water, energy, healthcare, jobs,” Valencia said, “these are things that we need and solutions are not yet mature.”

“Another one is the technology: is there really unique, standard technology that can be developed? Can the team execute that technology, that business? And in the end, is there a market? Technology in business without profit and revenue will not survive, he added.

Plug and Play Tech Center’s Flores noted how there are very few Filipino startups currently being incubated in centers like theirs in the United States and in other parts of the world.

“But we are hoping that through the Demo Days like this one with IdeaSpace, we will be able to identify some potential ones we can help accelerate in Silicon Valley,” Flores said.

Under the IdeaSpace program, the 10 winners received an initial funding of P500,000 on top of more than P1 million worth of services and training under a rigorous six-month business incubation program. They were also recipients of business mentoring, office space, and housing for non-Metro Manila participants.

Now that the 10 winners have completed the business incubation period, IdeaSpace will determine which startups will receive up to P5 million in additional funding based on how the teams accomplished their respective objectives.

IdeaSpace has announced a call for applications for emerging startups that would like to be included in the sophomore batch of the IdeaSpace incubation program, where they stand a chance to receive more than P1 million worth of funding, services, training and mentorship from the leaders of companies under the First Pacific Group.

Interested applicants may register at http://apply.ideaspacefoundation.org. The deadline for entries is Jan. 15, 2014.