Venture capitalist pushes "angel investing"

CEBU, Philippines - The country has to develop an angel community comprising of companies that are willing to invest on early-stage firms, a two-time start-up entrepreneur turned venture capitalist said. Frontera Group Founder and Managing Director Eric Manlunas said that with the vast opportunities for start-ups available in today’s market, such ecosystem would be viable for its sustainability.

“There have been pretty good start-ups. The opportunities are here. If we don’t start now, it will take longer,” he stated.

Although admitting that it would take more time, generational time particularly, to create such ecosystem, he noted that angel investing would go really far as it has a multiplying effect from all the players partaking in the investment.

Describing the failure rate of tech start-ups as fairly high, he further advised interested technopreneurs to focus more on developing feasible investments rather than being discouraged with the social stigma of failure.

With a strong passion for early-stage investing, Manlunas has a solid track record as an investor of about three dozen early-stage ventures. Frontera Group, on the other hand, is a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage emerging companies.

Meanwhile, Tallwood Venture Capital Managing Partner Diosdado Banatao said that Philippines has to follow the models of India, China, Korea and Japan among other countries in developing the market of technology.

He noted that the India and China are able to make use of their huge population as a human capital advantage in software development.

Although displaying strong progression, he further believed that Singapore is not worthy to emulate as there is not enough people to be affected with the sustainability of the global economy.

He said that the Philippines, with its growing population, has more capability in creating solutions and applications in technology.

“We are limited in our own market. The global market has an infinite market size. We need to try that market for us to sustain further. Besides, we have enough population and consumption to be part of the global market. Unlike Japan and Korea, we have way more people but look at their companies. It’s truly amazing,” he said.

Banatao added that it’s a total imbalance for the country since Filipinos, as part of the global market, consume globally-produced products marketed by other countries instead of producing their own and selling it to such market.

“What we want to do is to reverse that. Imagine that as long as we buy from them, the value goes back to the creator of the product. But if we have greater capability, it will also have a greater impact to the people and to the economy as well. Just a simple arithmetic,” he noted. - THE FREEMAN