Startups in the Philippines are entering a new chapter of growth, one that extends beyond technology and capital. At its heart lies the principle of diversity and inclusion (D&I).
For founders and investors alike, embedding D&I is no longer an afterthought or a symbolic gesture. It is a critical strategy for building resilience, driving innovation, and winning the trust of a complex, rapidly digitising market.
Digital inclusion as the foundation
The momentum for inclusion in the Philippines first became visible in financial technology. In 2013, only one per cent of Filipinos were actively using digital payment methods. Recognising the missed opportunity, the government pushed to accelerate adoption, supported by the Better Than Cash Alliance, a global partnership hosted at the United Nations.
By 2018, usage had increased to 10 per cent, and merchant payments emerged as the main driver of growth. Other important use cases included government-to-people transfers, peer-to-peer transactions, and transport payments. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) then rolled out its digital payments transformation roadmap in 2020, laying down infrastructure that would prove critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Philippines had started talking about this back in 2015 … building the retail payments infrastructure and building consensus with the private sector,” explains Isvary Sivalingam, Regional Lead for Southeast Asia at the Better Than Cash Alliance, in a past interview with e27. Without that foresight, the pandemic-driven surge in digital payments would not have been possible.
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Digital inclusion, however, is only the first layer. To fully unlock opportunities in the Philippines, startups must think more broadly about what inclusion means in the context of its people and communities.
Beyond financial inclusion: diversity as innovation
As Alea Ladaga, a long-time observer of the Philippine startup ecosystem, notes in her contributed post: while financial and digital inclusion dominate the conversation, it is time to expand the dialogue to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The Philippines, with its multilingual population, layered inequalities, and relational business culture, provides fertile ground for DEI-centred innovation.
Despite evidence that diverse teams are linked to stronger innovation and long-term resilience, many still view DEI as a distraction or a drag on efficiency. This mindset is particularly entrenched in Southeast Asia, where speed of scaling is often prioritised over inclusivity. Yet, the region’s complexity makes it uniquely positioned to lead in designing systems that reflect diversity at every level.
The challenge lies not in appetite but in infrastructure. As Ladaga highlights, systems, capital flows, and institutional support to make inclusion actionable are still catching up.
Venture capital firms play a strategic role here. Kickstart Ventures, backed by Ayala Corporation and Globe Telecom, has shown that long-term investment success can coexist with a strong DEI lens. Their experience demonstrates that backing inclusive, globally relevant startups is not only possible but commercially sound.
Sari-sari stores and women at the forefront
At the grassroots level, inclusion plays out in distinctly Filipino ways. A recent study by Packworks, in collaboration with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), sheds light on the outsized role of sari-sari stores—small neighbourhood shops that provide daily essentials to 94 per cent of the population.
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These stores are more than retail outlets. Run predominantly by women, they act as micro-business hubs that foster psychological, social, and economic empowerment. Women storeowners often see themselves as entrepreneurs, deriving self-confidence, purpose, and independence from their work. Their shops enhance social standing, strengthen community ties, and showcase how even the smallest enterprises can embody inclusive growth.
This underscores an important truth: innovation in the Philippines is not limited to digital platforms or venture-backed startups. It also lives in the micro-economies where women entrepreneurs are rewriting their social roles and shaping local markets. For startups aiming to succeed in the country, engaging with these realities is as important as scaling technology.
Winning the Philippine market through inclusion
The story of D&I in The Philippines is one of both infrastructure and imagination. Digital payments and financial accounts have laid the groundwork for formal inclusion. But the bigger challenge—and opportunity—lies in broadening this inclusion to reflect the diversity of the Filipino people, from multilingual communities to women micro-entrepreneurs.
Startups that embrace diversity and inclusion not as compliance, but as a design principle, will be better positioned to build products and services with deeper relevance. In a market as relational, diverse, and rapidly evolving as The Philippines, inclusion is not only the right thing to do—it is the winning strategy.
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