DOST puts spotlight on homegrown startup heroes at the 6th TBI Summit

THE Technology Business Incubator Summit of the Department of Science and Technology, held on the third day of the Philippine Startup Week 2022 with the theme “Homegrown Heroes: Incubating Future Tech Giants”, put a spotlight on the challenges and successes of homegrown heroes and the role of the TBIs in nurturing and supporting them.

“The TBIs have truly been significant in building a thriving startup ecosystem and in developing innovative startups in their respective localities who have the potential to become the next technology superstars,” said DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development executive director Dr. Enrico Paringit.

“The first 15 grantees of the Startup Grant Fund have collectively created 455 jobs, acquired 647 clients, raised P97.4 million in private investment and generated P280.7 million of revenues. If you look at the figures, the amount of investment plus the total revenues of the startups have already exceeded the amount of funding we have provided them. We are optimistic that these figures will increase as we measure the impact from the startups, we funded in 2021 and 2022,” he said.

Paringit said for the TBIS, they have collectively incubated and nurtured 1,369 startups, created more than 5,000 jobs, raised over P1.7 billion in private investments and generated P766.7 million worth of private investment. The TBIs also received a total of P118.3 million in private investments from their various partners.

“Our investment for the TBIs since 2018 amounts to a total of P244 million, and we are glad that our startups have attracted people and organizations to invest in them, as manifested in the investments and revenues they have raised and generated,” Paringit said.

One of the highlights of the summit are the keynote speeches from a TBI Manager and a DOST funded startup.

Prim Paypon, executive director of Asian Institute of Management-Dado Banatao Incubator, talked about how the TBI has supported the startups during the pandemic, the core values that a TBI Team should have, and the best practices of AIM DBI.

Alfred Gersava, co-founder of Virtualahan, a Davao-based social enterprise funded under the PCIEERD Women Helping Women-Innovating Social Enterprises program, shared their humble beginnings, local and global successes to inspire future technopreneurs that it is possible to go from being “zero” to “hero”.

The summit also featured startup founders from the Visayas like Nel Laygo of Peddlr (Samar), Neil Clyde Kho of The Green Table (Cebu), Wilvie Añora of AtoANI (Bohol) and Noreen Bautista of Panublix (Iloilo).