Photo: Front (L-R): Consul General Lilibeth Pono, FoPo‘s Gerald Marin and Commercial Counsellor Althea Antonio. 2nd Row: Novel Capital‘s Miguel Encarnacion, Consul Catherine Torres and Medwing‘s Johannes Roggendorf

Photo: PTIC-Berlin

Berlin, GERMANY. PTIC-Berlin together with the Philippine Embassy in Germany and Novel Capital Partners L.L.C organized the first Philippine StartUp MeetUp Berlin on 28 June 2018 at the Philippine Embassy in Berlin.

The event was attended by more than 35 representatives from both Berliner and Filipino startup scenes, and Embassy personnel. Berlin-PE’s Charge d’Affaires Beth Pono opened the event followed by a talk on Doing Business in the Philippines by Commercial Counsellor Althea Antonio, and an introduction to the Philippine startup ecosystem by Novel Capital’s Miguel Encarnacion. Consul Catherine Torres moderated the said event.

Filipino founder Gerald Marin of FoPo Food Powder talked about his experience in starting a business in Germany and how he is leveraging his network in the Philippines to improve operational efficiency. Founded in Bremen, Germany, FoPo saves almost wasted fruits and vegetables by turning them into powder with a shelf-life of up to 2 years and nutritional value saved up to 90%.

Medwing’s Johannes Roggendorf, meanwhile, talked about the early-stage startup’s vision to serve as the most trusted and convenient platform for finding opportunities and working in healthcare with an interest to tap the huge number of healthcare professionals in the Philippines and Asia. He also discussed the challenges his startup company is facing by recruiting Filipino health care professionals, namely, language requirement and visa regime in Germany. After Mr. Roggendorf’s talk, a guest from care.com also gave her insights about their company and how they could complement Medwing’s business model and explore possible collaboration.

Post likewise received positive feedbacks from the participants describing it as very informative and fruitful. As an example, during the networking session, Manuel Biermann and Jan Schneewind matched on a potential partnership in terms of land lease for office space. Charge d‘Affaires Beth Pono commended the event and expressed her support to the activity by offering to host and fund the next startup meetup.

Date of release: 5 July 2018