Start-ups, VC investors engaged to collaborate in Ignite 2018

Ignite wraps up another successful conference which aims to promote collaborations between up-and-coming businesses and investors, and attended by innovation industry leaders and start-ups companies.

Held last July 16 and 17 at Makati Shangri-La, Manila and presented by Techshake and dentsuX, Ignite 2018 completed its second year run by having key speakers and break-out sessions for its participants.

Among the notable keynote speakers include Intelligencr Founder Paul Papadimitriou, Unilever Foundry’s Head of SEAA and Level3 Barbara Guerpillon, and IE School of Human Sciences and Technology’s Strategist and Evangelist (Symantec) Professor Ramses Gallego.

Panel discussions were likewise headed and attended by Endeavor PH Managing Director Manny Ayala, who participated as panel moderator, who discussed issues with panellists Dreamvision Inc. Founder and CEO Ikuo Hiraishi, Monk’s Hill Ventures’ Venture Partner Reez Nordin, Quest Venture’s Managing Partner James Tan, Gree Venture Investor Samir Chaibi, and Kickstart Ventures Senior VP and Treasurer Dan Ichikawa Siazon.

The Philippines has been starting to receive interest from venture capital (VC) firms in the recent years. Although not exactly a main stage in terms of innovative start-ups, there have been local business ideas from which VCs find the possibility of becoming big in the near future.

VCs take into consideration investment returns and possibility of growth, and at the same time, the demand of the market in terms of which type of start-up businesses must be launched to the public.

The conference aims to create a platform for investors and start-ups to meet and possibly enter into future ventures together.

The speakers and talks during breakout sessions emphasized on the importance of start-ups thinking global even early on, and for VCs to focus on the promising aspects of investing on local businesses.

Ignite was first organized last 2017, a one-day event featuring speakers from Dentsu Aegis Network PH, 500 Startups, dxLab, and Google PH.

It aims to organize more events in the future and in involving more corporations and investors both from the local and international scenes.

INQUIRER.net and InqPOP! are major media partners of Ignite 2018. INQUIRER.net Brandroom/FE/VT