IdeaSpace eyes regional role

MANILA, Philippines - As efforts towards the creation of a unified ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) continue steadily, Philippine startup incubator IdeaSpace Foundation has set its sights on a more challenging regional role for its accelaration program.

 The Philippine economy has been performing well in recent years and the upcoming ASEAN integration is envisioned to provide local startups and innovators the opportunity to showcase technology prowess and business acumen to expand beyond the borders of the country.

 “The world has seen how the Southeast Asian region is becoming one of the most important startup hubs in the world, and the Philippines is well-positioned to become the region’s innovation bright spot in the years to come,” said Earl Martin Valencia, president and co-founder at IdeaSpace. “Out startups have the talent, the skills, and now the resources to make it big regionally and globally.”

 The ASEAN integration bats for the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a single trade market composed of 10 member-nations including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Valencia said the AEC will create better market runway for technology startups to expand outside the Philippines and create new market opportunities for unique innovations developed in the Philippines.

For its 2015 startup competition, for example, IdeaSpace has seen increased interest from early-stage startups in neighboring ASEAN countries, with submissions coming from Singapore, Malaysia, US, Brazil, Mexico, England, Hungary, UK, and India, among others. The competition ended last Jan. 15.

 Similarly, some of the startups that IdeaSpace invested in over the years are making their mark in the region and around the world.

 This includes TimeFree Innovations, a virtual queuing startup that has successfully deployed its solution in other countries outside the Philippines, most recently in Malaysia. Meanwhile, Tudlo, which focuses on providing mobile tools for disaster preparedness and mitigation, has recently been invited to the Future Innovators Summit in Austria.

 Another IdeaSpace-backed startup, SALt (Sustainable Alternative Lighting), which developed a saltwater-powered lamp and mobile charger, emerged as the only Asian startup to place in the Top 5 out of participants from 50 countries in the recently-held World Startup Competition.

 “These startups have proven that Philippine innovations, when combined with the grit and mettle of the founders behind them, can make it big in the world stage,” Valencia stressed. “This has been the vision of IdeaSpace from the very beginning.”

 The Top 20 ideas after three rounds of judging will officially enter IdeaSpace’s six-week incubation phase, where each startup will receive a P50,000 grant for prototype development, presentation materials, and customer validation, among others.

 After the incubation phase, the IdeaSpace Board of Trustees will select the Top 10 startups that will enter the acceleration phase, an intensive 18-week program that will help each startup develop their products, set up their corporation and business permits, and conduct market validation, among others.

 Each startup that successfully enters the acceleration phase will get P500,000 in seed funding, plus a  separate grant worth at least another P500,000 inclusive of business management classes, marketing and financial consulting, intellectual property consulting and incorporation, office space, and business registration costs, among others.

 A non-profit foundation, IdeaSpace is supported by the following companies: First Pacific, First Pacific Leadership Academy, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, MPIC hospital group, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Meralco, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. and its mobile brand Sun Cellular, SPI Global, ePLDT, Indofood, Philex Mining, Maynilad, MediaQuest, and TV5.