IdeaASpace Foundation, the incubator and accelerator unit of PLDT group has granted 1 million pesos in equity-free financing to 10 local startups. This is the first batch of startups that received the financing from IdeaSpace since the competition was established 4 years ago.
The 10 winner are the following:
1. Populi – Social media and news online is aggregated into big data. This is for the use of politicians.
2. Taxumo – A tax app aimed at SMEs professionals, freelancers and corporations with their taxes
3. E.A.R.S. – a wearable device for the deaf/hearing-impaired that provides an early warning, detection, reaction device protecting users while outdoors from accidents, collisions, threats;
4. Cropital – a crowdfunding platform to help finance farmers;
5. Cleaning lady – a mobile app providing cleaning services targeted at condominium owners;
6. Tralulu – a digital platform that connects travelers and local guides by allowing travellers to book guides and customize their itineraries with them.
7. Banyera – an online marketplace for wholesale farmed fish products;
8. Invested – a microfinancing platform for student loans;
9. Investagrams – website and app that provide education, analytic tools and information, in the stock market;
10. Tarkie – field employee tracking and productivity tool; and
“Because we announced that we will not be taking equity, more teams with value came to the competition,” Eustaquio said. “Our promise is we want to be a feeder to the industry to be able to provide angel investors and companies assurance that teams that graduate in the program are really investible teams.”, said IdeaSpace exec. Director Diane Eustaquio.
Eustaquio added she is confident of the foundation’s sustainability beyond the initial seed funding it received from its principals. IdeaSpace was initially bankrolled by a P500 million five-year commitment from the PLDT group.
Exec. Director Eustaquio is confident that the foundation’s sustainability even beyond its initial P500 million commitment from the PLDT Group.
“Because we are not taking equity now and we are not going to take follow-on investment, we have a lot more money for quite a number of years. We are also finding ways to improve our operations so that we can last a long time,” Eustaquio disclosed
Also, the quality of entries has been observed to have improved from the initial entries four years ago. The customer centric startups have now begun to mature in a sense that the startups are now addressing customer pain points..
Source: Readings from http://www.interaksyon.com/infotech/ten-startups-bag-equity-free-funding-from-ideaspace-foundation#.V4xoLEyv9Gp.facebook
0 Comments