Philippine Startup Week (PHSW20) has announced the winners of its second edition of the competition, which was held from November 23-27.
One of the country’s largest startup conferences, PHSW20 was jointly organised by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), QBO Innovation Hub, and various private organisations and community partners.
Taking on the theme of “Filipino Startups Powering Up the New Normal”, the event showcased the nation’s thriving startups and focussed on stakeholders contributing to the growth of the local startup ecosystem.
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The five-day virtual conference was held via an online platform that aimed to allow attendees to learn, interact, network, and collaborate remotely.
PHSW20 featured three competitions: ‘ARISE Startup Pitch Competition’, ‘MICROSOFT: Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition’, and ‘Seedstars Manila Competition’.
Below is the list of the winners of each of the competitions:
ARISE Startup Challenge
A national pitching competition organised by StartUp Village, the event aims to fund, nurture, and support innovative and groundbreaking startups that possess promising ideas that are both bankable and sustainable.
ARISE also aims to help level the playing field by giving each startup a chance to be discovered and showcased to a group of potential investors, partners, and clients.
The pitching competition featured a mix of startups coming from all over the Philippines while also being a platform to display the brilliance and capabilities of Filipino startups.
The winners of this completion are:
MedHyve (first place): a startup which aims to provide an interconnected platform for medical communities across ASEAN to acquire their medical needs.
NextPay (second place): an all-digital banking suite for small businesses which allows them to receive payments, manage company money, and pay their employees and suppliers in batches, all in one platform, to any bank or e-wallet.
Zagana (third place): an online platform for fresh vegetables and fruits direct from local farmers.
MICROSOFT: Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition
During PHSW20, Microsoft hosted its Highway to a 100 Unicorns programme, with the aim to discover, nurture and engage with high potential technology startups from 16 countries in APAC, to help them achieve their scaling goals in a bid to enable them to become truly global enterprises in the future.
The programme included a competition called Emerge X, where Microsoft for Startups selected the top 5-10 startups from each of the 16 countries to be onboarded for a deep year long mentorship program.
The top startups from each country also got to pitch their solution at Philippines Startup Week. Their pitches were judged by a panel of prominent VCs and investors who identified the top-3 startups in the whole region.
Four startups from Vietnam, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Singapore won the inaugural Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition in Asia Pacific.
The winners are:
Abivin (Vietnam): an AI-powered platform that optimises supply chains across multiple sectors by solving the vehicle routing problem.
Lifetrack Medical Systems (Philippines and Singapore): a cloud-based platform that provides affordable access to medical imaging in emerging markets.
Agrithmics (Sri Lanka): a cloud-based solution that enriches the agri-industry by digitizing the farm to factory supply chain and connecting farmers and buyers.
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Milky Way AI (Singapore): An AI-powered smart retail solution leveraging image recognition technology to help retailers manage shelf inventory and maximise sales.
Seedstars Manila Competition
Seedstars World featured the best startups from the Philippines to pitch online in front of an investment panel and compete to be crowned the most promising seed-stage startup of Seedstars Manila 2020.
The winning startup’ won prizes, including an opportunity to be the part of the global Seedstars Family, access to the Seedstars Regional Competition at the end of the year, and to compete for a US$500,000 in equity investment.
MedHyve was adjudged the winner and is set to represent the Philippines during the regional round, competing against other startups from Asia to get into the finals.
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Image Credit: PHSW20
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