Ten local technology startups won up to P5 million in funding in a national search conducted by IdeaSpace Foundation, a business incubator backed by companies from the PLDT group.
The winners are:
Armtech (Angeles City) ? Affordable water purification machine for households
DateCola (Davao City/ General Santos City) ? Natural date-enriched beverages, a healthy alternative to softdrinks
Mirand (Metro Manila) ? Low-cost and high-quality total joint implants for the Asian market
PGRS (Metro Manila) ? Produces electricity via rumble strips installed on high traffic roads
PinoyTravel (Metro Manila) ? Provincial bus seat reservation system using mobile technologies
PortfolioMNL (Metro Manila) ? Online marketplace for creative professionals
Prodigo (Metro Manila) ? A solution for highly targeted promotions for merchants using Big Data analytics
Tech4Health (Metro Manila) ? Solution for health monitoring of chronic conditions, including diabetes
TimeFree (Zamboanga) ? SMS-based automated queuing system
WeGen (Sorsogon) ? New design of wind turbine that is more efficient than current technology
The ten teams will receive six months business incubation and initial funding of P500,000 each. They will also receive mentoring, support, services, and grants from IdeaSpace partners with estimated worth of P2 million to scale up their business.
All teams can get additional investments of up to P5 million each within the incubation period. IdeaSpace will also link the teams to potential investors in the Philippines, Silicon Valley and other parts of the world.
The winners were chosen from almost 700 entries from all over the Philippines, a record number for a local technology or startup business competition.
After several levels of screening, they were awarded right after the final pitching and judging event at the First Pacific Leadership Academy in Antipolo last April 5.
The panel of judges for the final leg was led by Manuel V. Pangilinan, managing director and CEO of First Pacific and included Jose Ma. K. Lim, president and CEO of Metro Pacific; Ricardo Blancaflor, director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines; Orlando B. Vea, president and CEO of Digitel Telecommunications Philippines and Chief Wireless Advisor at Smart Communications ; Johan Hellstam Segergren, Philippines and Thailand country manager of Google Enterprise; and Lawrence Goh, Chief Information Adviser for PLDT and Smart.
Edward A. Tortorici, executive director of First Pacific and Executive Advisor at Metro Pacific joined the judging panel online. SGV & Co. provided tabulation and auditing services.
“All the finalists were equally impressive but these ten teams emerged as winners. We’re excited for our first batch of incubatees. Our job now is to help them become investable businesses at par with global standards.? said Earl Martin S. Valencia, IdeaSpace president.
?We have seen such an amazing diversity of ideas from our competition’s first run. What is common is that they all pose innovative and disruptive solutions to market needs. It’s a strong statement for science, technology and business.” he added.
Six of the winners were from Metro Manila, two from Mindanao, one from Central Luzon and one from Bicol region — reflecting the geographical spread of science and technology business idea potentials in the country.
The first batch of IdeaSpace funded startups show a mix of hardware, mobile, and software solutions for various industries such as agriculture, energy, ICT, healthcare, media, telco and transportation.
IdeaSpace targets early stage funding for aspiring technology entrepreneurs or technopreneurs with potentially innovative or disruptive business ideas or startups with minimum viable products seeking additional boost to propel them to commercial launch level.
Launched in March 2012, IdeaSpace conducted a national road show and opened its competition in late August. Submissions closed in early January.
Incubation services for the winners include office space, business operations support (accounting, legal, IP assistance and marketing), housing facilities for non-Metro Manila based winners and executive trainings.
Winners will also receive services, mentoring and assistance from IdeaSpace partners such as Amazon, Asian Institute of Management, Freelancer.com, Ionics, IPO Philippines, Microsoft Philippines, Adamson University and the University of the Philippines-Open University.
With P500-million funding for five years, the initiative is the largest private sector commitment for technology entrepreneurship in the Philippines.
Other finalists for IdeaSpace national competition included:
AgriCultureTechnology (Metro Manila) ? Monitors growth of aquatic livestock
CornerData (Metro Manila) ? Simplified data gathering for agriculture and disaster preparedness using electronic sensors
DepEd Smart Cloud (Angeles City) ? Enterprise solution for public school system
FindmyDok (Davao) ? A solution for searching doctors
Lost Meets Found (Cebu) ? An online solution for lost and found objects
miCab (Cebu) ? Smartphone solution for getting a cab with or without mobile Internet
Nambal.com (Cebu) ? Online healthcare system with portable features
SafeCab (Cebu) ? A solution that providing feedback for commuters riding cabs
Summarize and Notify (Leyte) ? Allows Web searches, summarizes information and notifies users
Tudlo (Cebu) — A system that teaches, guides and points during a disaster and emergency situation
