27 May 2019

Published also in Business Mirror

AFTER the country’s successful participation in the Slingshot Philippines Startup Pavilion and Delegation at InnoVEX 2018, 11 start-up companies will represent the Philippine start-up community in InnoVEX 2019 to be held from May 29 to 31, 2019, at the Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei City, Taiwan.

The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco) and the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC)-Taipei, in cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) and QBO Innovation Hub, will bring the progressive start-ups and community builders that offer cutting-edge innovation in diverse and currently relevant fields such as  artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, geospatial mapping, innovative housing solutions, cyber security, smart advertising and e-commerce, education, fintech, logistics, and data science-enabled market research.

“We are very excited to support the Slingshot Philippines Startup Ecosystem Pavilion and Delegation at Innovex this year, given that technology innovation cooperation is one of our priority industry collaboration areas with Taiwan. Recognizing Taiwan’s strengths and global leadership position in electronics manufacturing and technology innovation and leveraging the Philippines’s substantial market-size, global market access, emerging innovation community and the creative talents of our globally sought-after human resource—the partnership between our startup communities will be a win-win collaboration for the two next door neighbors in today’s changing economic and technology landscape,” Meco Chairman and Resident Representative Angelito T. Banayo said.

These 11 start-ups are Antipara Exploration, Container Living Philippines, Cryptors, Gypsy, Investagrams, JazzyPay, Mober, Qwikwire, Retailgate, Rumarocket and Senti.

Antipara Exploration offers automated-data analyses in their submarine geospatial mapping technologies for the maritime industry and marine environmental mapping. In a country-archipelago such as the Philippines with more than 7,100 islands, this is a crucial homegrown technology with many important applications.

Container Living Philippines has a modular-construction approach to offer modern housing solutions using shipping containers that are disaster-resilient and highly customizable to the client’s needs.

Cryptors offers a free mobile app that can detect and block hackers preying on free public Wi-fi platforms.  They also revolutionized cyber-security trainings, making them available at very low rates compared to prohibitive market service fees.

Gypsy is a Philippine advertising technology platform, that offers advertisers, not only the market reach, but valuable data-gathering technologies and hyper-targeting solutions to effectively launch campaigns via proprietary-apps installed in tablets in ride-hailing services and public transportation alternatives.

Mober offers a mobile platform to easily find and book location-based, on-demand tailor-fit trucking and moving solutions for businesses and individuals, similar to how ride-hailing solutions do their businesses.

Investagrams is a one-stop shop platform that offers beginners guides and tips for individuals who want to invest in the stock market. Investagrams offers monitoring of hundreds of stocks real time and the ability for users to engage on virtual trading transactions.

JazzyPay is a Philippine payment platform that offers efficient billing solutions for businesses from any part of the world, to bill their clientele. JazzyPay offers their services via their proprietary app, e-mail, sms or other messaging platforms.

Qwikwire offers advanced business solutions such as Skas Property Management services, SAP- integrated billing and invoicing systems, cross-border settlements via their own proprietary blockchain powered multi-listing engine. Qwikwire also offers a niche service catered to provide comprehensive real-estate solutions for brokers and property developers.

Retailgate uses its AI-powered solutions to help retailers gain competitive market intelligence through retail analytics. Employing artificial intelligence, they offer their platform to empower brick-and-mortar stores by providing access to AI-analyzed market information on customer traffic and dwell time, forecast demand levels, assess marketing effectiveness and determine conversion rates.

Rumarocket developed its own AI-enabled algorithm that offers HR analytics and machine learning solutions for talent recruitment, management and retention for enterprises and companies in their HR and Recruitment functions. Rumarocket’s solutions are aimed ensuring meaningful impact on clients’ bottom line and strategic HR management.

Senti Techlabs offers its proprietary artificial intelligence-powered solutions to businesses for market and audience sentiment data collection and analyses, using natural language processing and machine-learning processes.

“We are proud to have an impactful participation and excellent representation this year composed of the high-innovation, talent and creativity of the Philippine start-up community at Taiwan’s InnoVex 2019, to showcase the diverse and cutting-edge solutions from our start-ups that aim to solve very current day-to-day problems,” DTI Trade Representative and MECO Director of Commercial Affairs Michael Alfred V. Ignacio said.

In addition to QBO Innovation Hub, another incubator-accelerator, Spring Valley Technology and Innovation Hub, located in Roxas City will join the Philippine delegation at InnoVEX. Spring Valley Technology and Innovation was created as a home for innovation and technology development both for local and international start-ups and technology developers in central Philippines. Spring Valley also partnered with the province of Capiz and the DTI to create Capiz’s Fablab and Innovation Center.

The Philippine-participants in this year’s event were selected following thorough selection criteria from a list of applicants after a call to participation was announced to the Philippine start-up community.