Five young Filipino entrepreneurs make it to Forbes Asia's ‘30 under 30’ list
Five young Filipino entrepreneurs made it to Forbes Asia’s “30 under 30” list for the year 2020.
Out of 3,500 nominees, Louise
Emmanuelle Mabulo, Carlos Yulo, Margielyn Didal, Francis Plaza, and Breech Asher Harani were chosen to be part of the magazine’s annual roster of “young entrepreneurs and change
makers.”
“For the fifth year in a row, our team at Forbes Asia has put together a list of the best talents from the AsiaPacific region who are tackling just about everything, from AI innovations to online funeral services to stylish pet products,” Forbes Asia said.
Forbes Asia said that this year’s honorees were chosen based on “demonstration of leadership, impact, potential of success, and the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit synonymous with Forbes.”
Famous personalities who made it to Forbes Asia’s annual list included South Korea pop group Twice, “Parasite” actress Park So-dam, and 88rising singer NIKI.
Social entrepreneurs Mabulo is among the youngest in this year’s list. She was also handpicked as the “Featured Honoree” for the “30 Under 30” list of Social Entrepreneurs.
The 21-year-old social entrepreneur was hailed for her Cacao Project initiative which aims to provide cacao plant seedlings to Filipino farmers and teach them “how to responsibly and sustainably produce cacao.”
“I didn’t want [farmers] to be reliant just on rice and coconut. Every year, there’s typhoon and there’s a need for diversification,” Mabulo told Forbes Asia about her project.
Forbes Asia said Mabulo’s project has helped “more than 200 farmers plant 80,000 trees.”
“The project aids reforestation efforts and has helped with the revival of two water sources from increased water retention in soil. In addition to cacao, the project provides farmers with other crops, such as bok choy, okra, and pumpkins to intercrop with the cacao and maintain soil fertility,” Forbes Asia said.
In 2019, Mabulo was also recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme as a “Young Champion of the Earth.”
Entertainment and sports Gymnast Carlos Yulo and professional street skateboarder Margielyn Didal were both recognized by Forbes Asia for their outstanding achievement in the field of sports over the past year.
Didal made a name for Filipinos in the field of street skateboarding when she won four gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games.
“As of this writing, Didal is preparing to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, where skateboarding has been included in the Games for the first time,” Forbes Asia said.
The Filipina athlete was also recently honored as Athlete of the Year at the Sportswriters Association of Cebu-San Miguel Brewery Cebu Sports Awards.
“In March, she claimed bronze at the first-ever Women's Open at the annual Tampa Pro competition in
Florida,” Forbes Asia said.
Yulo’s history-making gold medal win at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2019 gave him a rightful spot in this year’s list.
The Filipino gymnast became the first male athlete in Southeast Asia to achieve such feat in the competition.
Yulo also made a victorious debut at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, winning two gold and five silver medals.
Forbes Asia also cited Yulo for being a recipient of the “President’s Award” from the Philippine Sportswriter Association last March.
The arts Alexandrite Pictures founder, Breech Asher Harani, was recognized by Forbes for his works in the field of film, photography, and digital arts which raises awareness on “social issues such as diversity, migration, environment, and culture.”
Harani’s independent studio, Alexandrite Pictures, produces “multimedia works for advocacy, commercial, and on a commission basis,” according to Forbes.
In 2019, Harani won the JCS International Young Creatives Award from the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Finance and venture capital At the age of 27, Francis Plaza is already a chief executive officer (CEO) of PayMongo Philippines, Inc., a financial technology startup.
Plaza is also co-founder of Paymongo which is an online payment processing platform according to Forbes Asia.
“In September last year, just a few months after it graduated from Y Combinator and launched, the startup raised $2.7 million in seed funding from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, San Francisco-based VC firm Founders
Fund, and fintech unicorn Stripe.
Before starting Paymongo, Plaza also worked for multinational tech corporation Oracle. He also co-founded Murber, an online marketplace.
Plaza graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering.
Forbes Asia noted that Plaza was only 16 years old when “he was admitted in the top institution."