Tuesday, March 19, 2024

IdeaSpace names top teams for 2019 competition, invests P3M in logistics and tourism start-ups

Local start-up accelerator IdeaSpace has announced its investment in the top three teams for this year’s start-up competition, after a rigorous four-month acceleration program where 20 start-ups worked with mentors to refine their business and financial model, product, operations, and communications.

IdeaSpace president Butch Meily (2nd from left) and executive director Diane Eustaquio (2nd from right) awarded Daimler Villena and Rafael Jouwena of Cocotel (3rd and 4th from left), Charlotte Yu and Rachel Uy of Airship (5th and 6th from left), and Jeffrey Patrick Lui and Gian Gallegos of Experience Philippines (4th and 5th from right) with P1 million investments. Joining the awarding are Google regional execs Marcus Foon (rightmost) Jowynne Khor (leftmost) and Metro Pacific Tollways South Corporation president and general manager Roberto Bontia (3rd from right)

This year’s investees include:

  • Airship Logistics, a ready-to-use, low-cost end-to-end solution targeted to courier companies looking to improve their operations management;
  • Cocotel, a tech-based aggregator offering property management, construction and design support, and marketing services to value-for-money resorts and hotels; and
  • Experience Philippines, a community travel platform offering themed, gamified travel experiences to domestic and foreign tourists.

The three teams will receive a P1 million investment each, in exchange for equity, along with access to exclusive learning sessions, free use of office space, and linkages to corporate partners, strategic partner resources, and investors.

A study by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company’s noted that e-commerce and online travel are two of the biggest sectors in the internet economy in Southeast Asia, with e-commerce’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) now worth $38 billion and online travel GMV now worth $34 billion.

“IdeaSpace’s investments reflect our optimism towards sectors that we see as potential sunrise industries for the Philippines, such as e-commerce and tourism,” shared IdeaSpace president Butch Meily.

“Airship looks to support local courier companies as they work to provide quality service in the wake of the exponential growth in the e-commerce sector, while Cocotel and Experience Philippines have built platforms digitizing Filipino hospitality, providing small and medium enterprises opportunities to showcase their businesses and products.”

Added Meily, “These three companies are already gaining traction, even attracting interest from larger local corporations, and they provide a promising view of the kinds of businesses, solutions, and services the Philippines will be able to offer as our own digital economy matures.”

With the Philippines’ digital economy expected to grow to $25 billion by 2025, there is a greater need for start-ups ready to capture the opportunity made possible by a growing digital economy.

“We’re looking for resilient, creative, and disciplined entrepreneurs who understand the pain points they’re trying to solve in industry and society and who are willing to do the work to build a scalable, sustainable business,” shared IdeaSpace executive director Diane Eustaquio.

As such, IdeaSpace has also organized roadshows to educate potential entrepreneurs and innovators to its incubation and acceleration program, with events slated for the first few weeks of December and January 2020:

IdeaSpace 2020 Competition Roadshow 

  • Dec. 7, 2019: Microtel by Wyndham, Baguio City 
  • Dec. 10, 2019: The Foundry, CDO; FBR Arcade Building, Katipunan, Quezon City; and 561 Shaw Blvd., LG Shaw Plaza Bldg., Mandaluyong
  • Dec. 12, 2019: IdeaSpace Office, 4th floor, Philcox Building, Salcedo St., Makati 
  • Dec. 13, 2019: University of Southeastern Philippines, Davao City 

IdeaSpace 2020 Competition Writeshops 

  • Jan. 6-10, 2020: IdeaSpace Office, 4th floor, Philcox Building, Salcedo St., Makati
  • Jan. 11, 2020: Quezon City

The deadline for applications for the 2020 IdeaSpace Competition is on January 17, 2020.

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