Joel Aldor, President of Grupo Kalinangan Inc pitches his startup in front of the panelists during the Interspace Pitch Rally.
Manila, July 22, 2019 – KMC, the Philippines’ largest flexible office solutions and staff leasing provider announces the local Filipino startups awarded to join the third batch of the “Space For Ingenious” (SFI) Program. SFI is a six-month startup mentoring program that provides winners with intensive mentoring and consultations with industry leaders and subject-matter experts.
The third batch’s pitching competition called the “Interspace Pitch Rally” was held last June 28, 2019, wherein Forth Co., Goally, Grupo Kalinangan, Hero Points and UPROOT Urban Farms were declared as winners, eligible to join the program.
Who the batch 3 members are?
All the batch 3 finalists have specific advocacies that promote doing good.
Forth Co. is an online marketplace for sustainable fashion in the Philippines.
Goally is a mobile and web end to end financial tool where you can plan, track and achieve your financial dreams.
Grupo Kalinangan is a formidable organization that pioneers and innovates on solutions and systems for improved management of heritage resources in the Philippines.
Hero Points is a reward points platform for both merchants and customers where every single transaction includes a contribution towards local NGOs.
UPROOT Urban Farms is a social enterprise that aims to address the socio-economic dimensions of food insecurity and poverty by enabling innovative and sustainable localized food systems with the use of Aquaponics Technology.
The Space for Ingenious Program
KMC’s CEO Michael McCullough and COO Tracy Ignacio (from left to right) are among the panelists for the Interpace Pitch Rally.
Since May 2018, the SFI program has successfully incubated 11 startups. The 6-month program will take a startup’s brainchild idea from conception to reality through the three pillars of the program.
“We’re thrilled to see that the startup ecosystem is growing and getting more recognition. Working closely with many local startups and entrepreneurs, we felt compelled to support them. We felt that by providing a professional working space absolutely for free, we could already address that pain point many of these companies have at this stage,” said Riccardo Corsini, Vice President of Marketing for KMC.
Corsini stresses that a conducive and professional working environment is vital for businesses especially at the start of their business. “Providing modern and passion-filled workspaces is the core of KMC,” said Corsini.
Space for Ingenious Program assists select startups in growing their business through a three-pillar model. The first pillar is Operation, where KMC provides exceptional workspaces and incubation facilities for the startups, conducive for productivity and collaboration. The second pillar is Network, where startups are provided access to a network of entrepreneurs and even potential investors. The third pillar is Strategy, where startups receive mentoring support from industry leaders and subject matter experts.
“The essence of SFI, however, lies in the ingenuity of the startups. Only those with the most groundbreaking ideas can be considered,” said Impact Hub Manila co-founder Ces Rondario.
Successful startups share their experience
SFI’s Batch 1 startup of the year awardee, Alexis Lingad, founder of Cryptors Cybersecurity after graduating the program says “We just received our first international award. BID International Star Award for Quality in the Gold category at International Star for Quality Convention took place in Geneva, Switzerland. We were chosen by DTI to represent the Philippines in the recently concluded Innovex Taipei 2019.” Cryptors Cybersecurity is an innovator in cybersecurity technology on the bug bounty platform and developed the award-winning mobile cybersecurity app, Hackuna.
SFI’s Batch 2 alumni Herbert Joei Bactong, co-founder and CEO of Burket expressed on how the SFI program has helped his company “The incubation helped us refine our idea and we learned a lot about how startups could become more successful. If not for the mentors and workshops, we would have missed some important aspects for our business which could potentially become a challenge in the future.” Burket is an online marketplace that uses social media marketing to match businesses and products.
Corsini added, “Startup owners with innovative minds and the will to persevere are those who have the potential to disrupt their respective industries and aiding these individuals to scale up is our contribution to the startup community and to the country’s progress.”
KMC and Impact Hub Manila’s Space for Ingenious program aims to be one of the best startup incubators in the country. Now on its third batch of startups, it is on its way there. If you would like to find out more on the program, feel free to visit https://kmc.solutions/space-for-ingenious.