These investments make for Gobi’s first venture into the Philippines

Gobi Core Philippines Fund, a joint venture between Gobi Partners and Core Capital, has announced seed investments in two Philippines-based companies — MariaHealth and Edukasyon.ph.

These are the first investments made by Gobi in the Philippine market.

MariaHealth was founded in 2016 by Vincent Lau and Anna Yu, who realised the difficulties and inefficiency in getting health insurance in the Philippines. The statistics show that eight of 10 Filipinos being reported as never having any medical check-ups in their lifetime due to the high price of insurance.

Also Read: Cloud business management platform Jojonomic raises funding from Finch Capital

MariaHealth plans to use the funding to tackle these issues. The company seeks to expand its online one-stop health platform to be able to provide simple and easily accessible healthcare to every Filipino.

The other investment by Gobi is the education sector. Edukasyon.ph was founded in 2013 by Henry Muñoz after witnessing the poor life outcomes of Filipino youth despite having spent billions on education.

Muñoz then created Edukasyon.ph with the aim of empowering 10 million annual student visitors to its platform to make better informed choices for their education, career, and life. Edukasyon.ph seeks to bridge the gaps between education and employment among the next generation through their online platform.

The Gobi Core Philippines officially launched in October 2018. It offers Philippine startups region wide expertise and network to support expansion to other Asian markets.

“We’re looking to invest not only in founders who we believe in, but also in companies that are doing something relevant to address the biggest needs of our fellow Filipinos,” said Ken Ngo, Managing Partner of Core Capital.

Thomas G. Tsao, Founding Partner of Gobi Partners, shared that he believed the Philippines has been overlooked by venture capitalists.

Also Read: Indonesia’s startup ecosystem will be richer if unicorns begin to go public, says Takahiro Suzuki of Genesia Ventures

“With a population of 120 million, the Philippines is the second largest country in ASEAN. We’re excited that we can get in on the ground floor of the digital transformation that is sweeping across the Philippines,” said Tsao.

Gobi and Core Capital believe investments in MariaHealth and Edukasyon.ph will bring outside interest to the Philippine startup ecosystem, which is also in line with their mission.
–

The post Gobi Partners-Core Capital JV invests in Filipino startups MariaHealth, Edukasyon appeared first on e27.