The Startup Venture Fund (SVF) Investment Committee (IC) held a “community mixer event” on Friday, March 24, at the National Development Company (NDC) in Makati City to link up startups to investors.
The event gathered five accredited Co-investment Partners (CIPs) and 10 potential startup investees in the pursuit of forging collaborations in terms of financial and non-financial support mechanisms.
“Let this event mark the beginning of more deal flows for Philippine startups. In return, these startups can pay forward by inspiring and encouraging more future tech leaders,” Department of Trade and Industry-Competitiveness Bureau (DTI-CB) assistant director Jo-Dann Darong said.
Meanwhile, NDC general manager (GM) and IC chairman Antonilo Mauricio asserted the growing potential of the SVF ecosystem with a value of P8 billion already.
As published in the Philippine Venture Capital Report for 2023 of Foxmont Capital Partners, the investments in Philippine startups have already exceeded $1 billion for two consecutive years.
Mauricio also underscored the huge role of the CIPs in stimulating synergies within the ecosystem.
“We need the help of our co-investment partners for shepherding and accelerating the startups to encourage them to work with us and keep things in track,” he emphasized.
The CIPs who attended the event include Gobi-Core PH Fund, ICCP SBI Venture Partners, Real Tech Holdings, Foxmont Capital Partners, and IdeaSpace Foundation which laid out their respective investment mechanisms for the new generation of entrepreneurs in the country.
To promote inclusivity, the event was conducted in a hybrid setup allowing non-Metro Manila-based startups to join the networking session and e-meet with potential collaborators to seek more financing opportunities.
SVF is one of the incentives granted by the Innovative Startup Act (ISA) that adopts a co-investment model with selected investors in providing equity financing to qualified innovative and high-growth potential startups.
Advancing forward, SVF IC, chaired by NDC with government and technical experts from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of Finance (DOF), and the private sector, said it will continuously evaluate more potential CIPs and actively search for promising startups in the country.
