In 2017, Philippine Government’s Initiative “The Philippine Roadmap for the Digital Start-ups” launched incubator and accelerator programs: AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator, Startup Village, Voyager Innovations, Google Launchpad Accelerator; the passing of the senate bills: The Innovative Startup Bill, Philippine Innovation Act and the development of event management pioneering TechTonic. It’s also in this pivotal year, that the country had its first unicorn in Robbie Antonio’s Revolution Precrafted.
Last September 13, Apple unveiled its most anticipated flagships iPhone 8, iPhone 8 plus and iPhone X which coincided with its 10th year anniversary. With its full retail prices of less than 1,000 USD – the most expensive iPhone to date, there is a growing market for less priced older iPhone models.
Companies from small and medium enterprises (SME) to giant corporations are shifting to e-commerce to broaden their consumer base despite Philippines’ “mall culture”. The Philippine e-commerce has the lowest retail e-commerce sales share against SEA markets but shows potential with its growing internet and smartphone penetration, rising middle class and young population. According to Google-Tesmark Holdings joint research, Philippines’ e-commerce market share will reach 9.7 Billion- 11.05% of SEA projected digital economy in 2025.
To challenge the notion that startup founders should have background in technology to build a startup company, iPrice Group conducted a focused study in SEA markets to determine if fields of study and level of education influence their success as founders. In the Philippine startup scene, the results suggest that business and social sciences are the 2 most common fields of study among Philippine startup founders and co-founders. Interestingly, more founders and co-founders took their bachelor’s degree in the “Big 4” Philippine Universities and later pursue a higher degree abroad.
Hi participants of the iPrice Innovators Grant,
It's baffling to know that women suffrage in the Philippines only happened 80 years ago; that's not even 100 years! Without feminism, Filipinas would still remain in the shadows of their male counterparts and it's still happening today, even with the world's openness towards female empowerment.