2 more firms qualify for Startup Venture Fund

MANILA  -Two more startups are set to receive about P5.7 million each from the Department of Trade and Industry’s investment arm, National Development Company’s (NDC), following the funding grant released earlier in October for the first beneficiary of the government’s agency’s Startup Venture Fund (SVF).

NDC assistant general manager Leopoldo Acot told the Inquirer that the funding approval was in the works and could follow soon after the P22-million grant to digital energy solutions startup Solx Technologies Inc. by the NDC and one of its coinvestment partner, Japan-based Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd.

However, Acot said that they were withholding the names of the firms for now given the 60-days confidentiality agreement with one of them.

Meanwhile, NDC general manager Antonilo DC Mauricio said that they were working to fast-track the approval process, and currently streamlining some procedures to hasten availment of the P500-million SVF.

According to records from the NDC, it has to date invested in at least 117 companies that it said had implemented pioneering projects for national development.

The government is in the process of promoting the Philippines as an ideal destination for startup companies, with Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual touting that the country has an enabling environment to help budding businesses thrive.

Citing the Global Startup Genome Report in 2022, Pascual said that the local startup ecosystem in general, and Manila’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, had been included in the report’s top 20 global ecosystems and the top 10 Asian ecosystems in affordable talent lists.

The report, which collected data from over 3 million companies, also placed the Philippines among the top 25 Asian ecosystems, top 15 Asian emerging ecosystems in funding and top 30 Asian ecosystems in delivering “bang for buck,” among others.