Venture capitalism remains untapped by Pinoy startups

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippines is still far from being ready to embrace the concept of venture capitalism.

This according to veteran venture capitalist Winston Damarillo after he personally attempted countless of times to develop an ecosystem of venture capitalism in the Philippines.

Damarillo, a native Boholano who spent his 20s and 30s building, growing, and selling tech companies in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, said though the Philippines is on its way to grasp the entire concept of venture capitalism, it has to mature in other areas first.

At this time, Damarillo believes that start-up companies, particularly those that have great commercial potential need to be mentored first, and be given access to market.

 Micro-capitalism is what the small entrepreneurs or start-up firms are needing, not the venture capitalist, as of yet, he said.

 Once they are mentored well, these Pinoy companies may be given access to working capital or micro-capital facilities, not yet the sophisticated concept of venture capitalism.

  Venture capital (VC) is a type of private equity, a form of financing that is provided by firms or funds to small, early-stage, emerging firms that are deemed to have high growth potential, or which have demonstrated high growth.

Damarillo, who also founded Developers Connect Philippines, Inc. (DevCon) in 2009, said what works for the Philippine culture as this stage, is not venture capitalism, but assisting start-up not only in financial needs, but the other tools that will help them grow their businesses, not only in tech-related ventures, but across industries.

"Let us build Filipino start-up, the Filipino way," he said in an interview.

Earlier, Tholons Inc., chairman and managing partner Avinash Vashistha urged the Philippines, particularly Cebu to be serious in developing its venture capitalism ecosystem in order to exploit its potential in innovation.

 The Indian Tholons executive observed a weak or under-developed ecosystem of Venture Capitalism (VC) here.

  "I don’t see enough of VCs, angel investors' supported projects here," said Vashista.

  But, Damarillo, who is also the chief executive officer of Amihan Global Strategies, is certain that the Philippines is not ready for VC, for now. It has to take several steps first, in order to get there.