Philippines: New incubator ‘StartUp Village’ launched

The SUV team from left are Carlo Calimon, Richard Prodigalidad, Jay Bernardo, and Roderick Perez. (Visual from Carlo Calimon)

By Tomas S. Noda III

February 12, 2017

A new startup incubator in the Philippines called StartUp Village was launched over the weekend geared to provide needed resources for new firms to succeed.

StartUp Village founder and entrepreneurship professor Jay Bernardo led the formal unveiling of the new facility at the Alphaland City Club, located in the Makati financial district, and aims to make it a one-stop startup incubator services company.

StartUp Village is a latest program of the LET’S GO Foundation (Leading Entrepreneurs Towards Sensing Global Opportunities), a non-profit, non stock organization that Bernardo founded in 2001 in a bid to support small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

Also Read: Philippines 2017: Host of new startup enablers to boost ecosystem

“We believe that this will open new avenues for the development of innovative entrepreneurs that come up with game-changing products and services,” StartUp Village said in its statement. “This could create meaningful impact towards achieving our objective of discovering new opportunities and expanding startups in a global scale.”

Currently, StartUp Village has 10 startup companies in its portfolio. The new incubator and accelerator is composed of experienced academicians, practitioners, startup founders and business gurus that guide startups through a tried and tested process.

In an interaction with DEALSTREETASIA, StartUp Village general manager Carlo Calimon said the startup space in the Philippines has a lot of potential and opportunity to grow, and all it needed was a lot of support from the various players.

Also Read: Endeavor Philippines to bring six ‘high-impact entrepreneurs’ to its network in 2017

“My role is to make sure that the startups have all the resources they need in order to grow. As we say, it takes a village to grow a startup. As such, we all have to work together and collaborate to help this space because the next big thing will come from here,” Calimon said.

Calimon is LET’s GO Foundation’s executive director and founder of fintech startup TheKard, maker of the MobKard App which provides digital privilege card services or mobile card offerings for customers.

Bernardo, meanwhile, is also the chairman and CEO of Freyo, a local startup company launched in 2015 and is engaged in digital newsstand business.

Also Read: Philippines: 14 promising startups to watch in 2017

StartUp Village has now also joined the latest string of startup enablers that recently emerged in the Philippines, namely La French Tech Philippines, WeCube Inc, AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator, QBO Innovation Hub, and StartupPH

Silicon Valley-based seed fund and early stage startup accelerator 500 Startups expressed interest in launching of a local microfund that coul possibly happen this new year.

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Philippines: Angel group MFT bats for easy listing of SMEs

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW