<article><p>Philippine tech startup <a href="http://mobkard.com/"><span style="color: #000080;"><strong>MobKard</strong></span></a> is gearing for an Asia expansion as it continues to gain a local foothold after securing ‘hundreds’ of merchant partners availing of its digital privilege card services or mobile card offerings for customers.</p></article>

<p>Philippine tech startup <a href="http://mobkard.com/"><span style="color: #000080;"><strong>MobKard</strong></span></a> is gearing for an Asia expansion as it continues to gain a local foothold after securing ‘hundreds’ of merchant partners availing of its digital privilege card services or mobile card offerings for customers.</p>
<p>Minor as it may seem, the issues of failing to bring or losing a plastic privilege card, and having to keep multiple cards, had led to its founders attempt a technical solution,  that has now led to a promising business enterprise.</p>
<p>MobKard co-founder <a href="https://ph.linkedin.com/pub/carlo-calimon/48/379/775"><span style="color: #000080;"><strong>Carlo Calimon</strong></span></a>, spoke to <a href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/"><span style="color: #003366;"><strong>DEALSTREETASIA</strong></span></a> about the startup&#8217;s journey from a concept stage into an actual business. Edited Excerpts.</p>
<h2>What does your company do and how did the idea came to life?</h2>
<p>MobKard is a mobile engagement platform that allows customers to receive exclusive privileges in real time as they approach their favorite establishments. It does so by digitizing and converting your traditional plastic privilege card into a mobile card while empowering merchants to create flash sales in store. The idea started because of a simple irritant. How many times have we missed out on a deal or privilege due us simply because we did not bring our privilege card or coupons? How many discount privilege cards do we have in our wallets and do we actually use these? Joining Ideaspace allowed us to answer these questions and convert the solution into an actual business enterprise.</p>
<h2><strong>What is your company&#8217;s status right now? </strong></h2>
<p>MobKard has gained significant headway in a little over a year of existence. We have partnerships with over 300 merchants from around the country. This number is increasing as we acquire more organizations. We are also going to launch a public MobKard that everyone can download in the first quarter of 2015. We also have agreements with 12 organizations and companies (mobs) with three [exclusive apps] already launched and the nine to be rolled out in the coming months. The live ones are Asian Institute of Management, US Alumni Club PH, and Xavier Alumni Association. The others about to go live are La Salle Green Hills Alumni Association, Purple Cow, Nail It, Sunglass Haven, SM Global Pinoy, Ascott Hotels, De La Salle University, and MobKard Public that anyone can download.</p>
<h2><strong>How many investors does your company have? How do you plan to use the invested funds?   </strong></h2>
<p>We as owners of the company have invested our own resources to expand and grow MobKard in the coming years. The investment was used to finance technology development and marketing to help grow the company.</p>
<h2>What are your future plans for business expansion?</h2>
<p>MobKard aims to establish its foothold in the Philippines then expand to different parts of Asia particularly in Singapore as well as Indonesia and in other emerging markets. We have already received interest from Papua New Guinea and neighboring countries.</p>
<h2>What do you expect of the startup space in the Philippines this year and beyond?</h2>
<p>I see the startup space to continue to grow as more and more Filipinos pursue their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. This comes as they gain confidence in coming up with business ideas that solve the daily problems that we all encounter. It also helps that various accelerators and incubation programs are currently setting up shop in the country. The success of pioneers such as Ideaspace and Kickstart pave the way for the growing interest to change the way we currently live our lives by coming up with products and services that help revolutionize the world.</p>
<h2>What&#8217;s the effective pitching strategy for you?</h2>
<p>I find that focusing on the needs and wants of the customer as well as clearly showing how MobKard can help solve their problems is an effective strategy. I further emphasize how we can help increase revenues and improve business relationships.</p>
<p><span style="color: #003300;"><strong>Related stories</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><a style="color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/ideaspace-grows-portfolio-22-cos-2014/%20 ">IdeaSpace grows portfolio to 22 Cos in 2014</a>  </span></p>
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<div><span style="color: #ff0000;"><a style="color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/10-ph-startups-that-stood-out-in-2014/">11 Philippine startups that stood out in 2014</a> </span></div>
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PH startup MobKard eyes Asia expansion

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PH startup MobKard eyes Asia expansion

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