Qarabao bears the burden of Filipino entrepreneurs

Like the Philippines’ national animal, a local tech startup is looking to “do the heavy lifting” for the country’s micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs), particularly online sellers burdened with managing all aspects of their business, through its web-based platform: Qarabao.

Launched recently in San Juan City, Qarabao streamlines for MSMEs all the back-end processes of their respective businesses—inventory tracking to shipping; management of online campaigns, multiple payment channels, shipping and customer relations; data analytics; point of sales systems. It also features a chatbot service that will respond automatically to common customer queries, as well as an e-commerce site which merchants can use as an alternative sales avenue.

The mobile- and desktop-based application was initially developed by tech entrepreneurs Mike Tiongson, Roy Nepomuceno and Cookie Enriquez for online merchants who use social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, and therefore have no seamless system that could accept payments, send invoices and track inventory.

“Based on our research, a lot of them do these things manually,” says Nepomuceno, Qarabao’s business operations specialist, who has an extensive background in project management and IT operations. “They use notebooks, or input the information in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Qarabao simplifies these processes using an accessible and affordable system.”

Qarabao is a subscription-based service, and comes in three packages: Standard, Plus and Premium. The Standard package, which suits sellers who would like to manage receiving and shipping orders, costs only P490 a month; prices for the other two will be announced soon, says Tiongson, Qarabao’s CEO. The Plus package works best for online sellers on social media and other marketplaces, and would like to put up their own virtual storefront without heavy competition from other brands.

The Premium package, Tiongson adds, is designed for sellers who have both online and offline stores, and would like a centralized platform for operating their business.

“We’ve tried to cover as much as we can in terms of challenges being encountered by Filipino merchants. We’re really listening to their feedback and implementing them in the application,” says Tiongson, whose professional experience revolves mainly around digital marketing, product management and project management.

Two things set Qarabao apart from their competition, both international and local: the app’s seamlessness and their understanding of the local market.

“Qarabao was designed with the Filipino business owner in mind,” Tiongson says.