Tag: Startups

Manila, Philippines – IdeaSpace Foundation Inc. (IdeaSpace), the non-profit organization that supports the startup ecosystem in the Philippines, has announced the 15 startups that are advancing to its ‘2021 Acceleration Program’ – a project that aims to support startups in developing stable, scalable, and sustainable businesses through mentorship, funding, and networking opportunities.

The 15 chosen startups have stood out at the pre-acceleration phase and prevailed after pitching their business ideas to a judging panel composed of executives from the IdeaSpace team and the MVP Group of Companies, along with selected investors and startup founders.

In the health, wellness, and fitness sector, online marketplace for fitness Fitscovery, fitness coaches online marketplace Splore Fitness, and online concierge pharmacy XalMeds, as well as picture exchange communication platform Pic-A-Talk will be advancing on the program.

Meanwhile, living sustainability start-ups such as cleantech company Circula Recoon, online laundry services Dirt Bag, and virtual shopping mall Oh My Genie! are also moving to the next round of the program.

Also joining the program are start-ups that promote hassle-free remote work, namely, human resource-tech-enabled solution Betterteam, long-chain referral-based job platform Pasajob, and career progression platform Xperto, as well as free smart POS platform Peddlr.io, and e-signature platform Twala.

And lastly, several e-commerce platforms will also advance on the program, including auto and motor parts e-commerce platform Pieza PH, community-supported fishery platform Fishbee, and product-centric software provider Instahomes.

These chosen startups will be undergoing a four-month program consisting of access to mentorship, workshops, and legal services, among others, and will receive a ₱100,000 cash grant. At the end of the program, IdeaSpace will be selecting three startups to invest in through its Opportunity Fund.

Katrina Rausa Chan, IdeaSpace’s executive director, said that startups in the 2021 cohort for the IdeaSpace Acceleration Program offer the solutions, the technology, the innovations, and the businesses that have the potential to propel the country forward and shape the new normal. 

“IdeaSpace has always invested in ventures with great teams and forward-thinking ideas. We can’t wait to see them scale up their businesses, help people, and create longer-lasting impact in their respective categories,” said Chan.

Meanwhile, Rene Meily, the president of IdeaSpace, shared that every startup in this cohort delivers digital-first solutions and they need that now more than ever. 

“We’ve seen the variety of the industries that these startups represent, which only goes to show that no matter your category, you will have to quickly adapt in these changing times and find ways to integrate digital in your products and services to provide relevant solutions. We are excited to see how they grow throughout the program, IdeaSpace and QBO will be with them every step of the way,” said Meily.

Hong Kong – Global technology company Huawei has announced that it is pledging to invest around US$100m for the benefit of the startup ecosystem in Asia-Pacific for three years, publicized during its recently-concluded HUAWEI CLOUD Spark Founders Summit held simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The company said that the investment would go towards its Spark Program in the Asia Pacific region, which aims to build a sustainable startup ecosystem for the region over the next three years.

Such endeavor reflects the company’s continuous efforts in helping Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand build their respective local startup hubs. 

At the summit, Huawei also announced that this program would focus its efforts on developing four additional startup hubs – in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam – with the overarching aim of recruiting a total of 1,000 startups into the Spark accelerator program and shaping 100 of them into scaleups.

Furthermore, Huawei also launched its Cloud-plus-Cloud Collaboration and Joint Innovation Program, to further ramp up its support for startups around the world. Huawei will devote ongoing efforts and leverage its complete business portfolio in the cloud-plus-cloud collaboration space to foster technological innovation, global and local services, and business ecosystems, accelerating the growth of startups.

Catherine Chen, senior vice president and board member at Huawei, opened up the summit by emphasizing how important startups are to social advancement and what Huawei is doing to support startups.

“Startups and SMEs are the innovators, disruptors, and pioneers of our times. 34 years ago, Huawei was a startup with just 5,000 dollars of registered capital. Recently, we have been thinking: How can we leverage our experience and resources to help more startups address their challenges? Doing so would allow them to seize the opportunities posed by digital transformation, achieve business success, and develop more innovative products and solutions for the world,” Chen stated.

Three more additional initiatives under the Asia Pacific Spark Program were launched by Huawei at the event: The Spark Developer Program, which aims to nurture a developer ecosystem powered by HUAWEI CLOUD in the Asia Pacific region; the Spark Pitstop Program, designed to onboard and support startups on HUAWEI CLOUD to accelerate product development; and the Spark Innovation Program (SIP), focused on facilitating enterprise innovation through the Spark startup ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Zhang Ping’an, CEO of Huawei’s Cloud Business Unit, commented that since its launch in 2017, HUAWEI CLOUD has been the world’s fastest-growing cloud, and has driven the growth of countless startups. He also added that as they launched the Spark Program in Asia Pacific last year, they have been working with local governments, leading incubators, well-known VC firms, and top universities to build support platforms for startups in many regions, which has seen 40 startups participating in the program.

“Starting today, we are stepping up our support for startups through four new initiatives, aimed at cloud-plus-cloud collaboration, continuous tech innovation, global and local services, and high-quality business ecosystems. Today, we launched our Cloud-plus-Cloud Collaboration and Joint Innovation Program, through which we will support startups with US$40m worth of resources. Half of that investment is coming from HUAWEI CLOUD, half from Huawei Mobile Services (HMS),” Zhang stated.

He added, “In 2021, our plan is to support 200 startups in the HMS ecosystem, and share our network of channel resources with developers worldwide who together serve 1 billion Huawei device users. In addition, we will open an HMS Developer Innovation Center to support 100,000 HMS cloud-native developers.”

Stipulated as well in the event was Huawei’s showcase of the latest data on its innovation research programs with startups. The data shows solid relationships between Huawei and more than 2,000 partners from across the Asia Pacific region, with ongoing initiatives to build support platforms in close partnerships with governments, top VC firms, and leading universities in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Huawei rounded off the series of announcements with a plan to build an HMS Developer Innovation Center. Through this center, Huawei aims to cultivate future talent in cooperation with 210 leading universities across the Asia Pacific region.

“For the past two decades, we have remained committed to being ‘In Asia Pacific, For Asia Pacific’. Leveraging Huawei’s global customer base and full-stack technologies, the Spark Program will invest more than US$100m over the next three years, and provide comprehensive support to the establishment of a sustainable startup ecosystem that creates new value for this dynamic region,” Jeffery Liu, president for Asia-Pacific Region at Huawei stated.

The summit was attended by representatives from many prominent Asian startups, academia, various industries and governments, and the media, as well as more than 50 regional top venture capitalists and over 300 startup founders. Speeches and panels at the event focused on the social value of this startup ecosystem and how startups can promote technological and ecosystem innovation, contribute to local communities and drive socioeconomic development.

Hong Kong – HSBC Hong Kong has rolled out a new business-to-business (B2B) digital community platform HSBC VisionGo. The platform will serve as an ecosystem for SMEs, startups, and prospective entrepreneurs where they can exchange dialogue for business insights as well as a place for networking. 

The platform is built on the company’s cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure. It employs machine learning technologies to offer personalized professional insights and networking opportunities through an AI-enhanced interface, along with new interactive features designed to further foster conversations and collaboration. 

The platform also enables SME operators to follow each other. Business topics can also be discussed among the community through interactive polling. In addition, SMEs can promote their own offers to create new business leads, or redeem available offers as added benefits. 

According to a recent HSBC report, 95% of Hong Kong businesses have extended support to, or have received support from other businesses they work with by exchanging expertise and sharing premises (50%), enabling others to get their products to customers (46%), or relaxing payment terms for their smaller partners (35%).

Terence Chiu, head of commercial banking at HSBC Hong Kong said, “HSBC is committed to investing in digital innovation to help Hong Kong’s SME sector. We are a connector in the business community, and we aim to use our strength to build a collaborative business ecosystem that will help businesses get through these challenging times and position themselves to make the most of the opportunities when they come.” 

A beta version of the platform was unveiled in March 2020. As the platform continues to develop, HSBC will be introducing features such as integration with its mobile payment service PayMe. 

Singapore – Aon, a global professional services firm which provides a broad range of risk, retirement, and health solutions, and Singapore-headquartered Doerscircle, an all-in-one services platform dedicated for startups, have entered into a collaboration to provide insurance solutions to the often underserved workforce of entrepreneurs, startuppers, and freelancers. The partnership will initially target Asia, and solutions will be offered through Doerscircle’s platform.

According to the information by the companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore account for two-thirds of all employment and contribute to close to S$200 billion to the Singaporean economy. 

Meanwhile, on a global scale, despite the World Bank’s recent findings that almost 50% of the global workforce is self-employed, access and affordability continue to be a challenge as traditional insurance plans are not usually designed to fit the needs of the self-employed.

Aon and Doerscircle aim to address these pain points and at the same time, leverage the economical contribution of this demographic of workers. The collaboration will see the development of commercial, risk, and health insurance solutions to answer the needs of smaller enterprises and independent workers, enabling them to focus on growing their business instead of spending time and energy on understanding and managing insurance issues.

Members of Doerscircle will be able to have access to tailored insurance solutions through a streamlined online process on the Doerscircle platform.

Over time, Doerscircle aims to extend these offerings to include more products and countries, leveraging Aon’s broad network, risk management expertise, and global capabilities.

“The current business and economic environment are changing the way people work. We are excited to collaborate with Doerscircle to address the specific insurance needs of this key segment of independent workers,” said Tobias Schneider, head of financial institutions and SME of Affinity Asia unit at Aon.

Meanwhile, Doerscircle founder Helle Priess said, “Doerscircle aims to challenge the status quo and reshape the world for independent doers – entrepreneurs, startuppers and freelancers. We strongly believe that insurance solutions should be accessible, relevant, easy to understand, and transparent. We’re thrilled that Aon has the same vision. We’re confident that together, we will set new standards in insurance offerings for independent doers.”