An intimate MeetUP of startups, social enterprises, startup enablers, academe, banks, and investors was recently held at the Sky Lounge of UnionBank Plaza to talk about “Tech for Good” and its concepts and applications in the Philippines. The well-attended event sought to highlight the importance of technology and the role of startups in helping achieve the country’s social and development goals.
MeetUP is a series of knowledge-sharing and networking activities by UnionBank and PhilDev Foundation that aims to encourage the co-creation of innovations and the use of technology in pursuit of more inclusive and sustainable development for the Philippines.
The main event featured a fireside chat with notable guest speakers to discuss the concepts and applications of Tech for Good in the Philippines. Joining this panel were Allister Ayque, co-founder and COO of Komunidad, Joshua Bosinos, VP-Data Science and AI of Union Bank, and Love Gregorie Perez, Director of Xchange. PhilDev’s program officer Samantha Chico moderated the chat.
“Tech for Good”, as the panelists defined it, meant utilizing tech as a tool to promote digital inclusion, market access, and even cost-cutting benefits. Emphasis was made on delivering “human value with impact to society” in solving problems and giving options to the marginalized.
UnionBank’s Bosinos built on these points when asked about why he believed social impact still mattered in the face of a global recession and investors being overly cautious during these times of economic uncertainty.
“In UnionBank’s journey of digital transformation, the co-creation of innovation is an important part of us creating technologies that would introduce human value to society. By delivering products that would impact the community, we believe that the value of our brand gets higher,” said Bosinos.
UnionBank highlighted their efforts in driving alternative data as a means to solve the problem of financial inclusion, specifically for MSMEs applying for loans yet not having all the required documents. In the absence of documents, the fintech leader utilizes alternative credit scoring to balance the credit risks with other sources of data to provide access to more lending opportunities.
Xchange, an incubator for early-stage social enterprises in the Philippines, likewise shares UnionBank’s mission to impact the community and create value for the marginalized. According to Perez, Xchange support startups that move the needle in solving problems.
“As impact investors, we are working with many different social enterprises that are solving the “to do” list of our time, like problems in education, health, the climate crisis, etc. We see a lot of great innovation that comes from problems, and tech is a way to scale these innovations as a tool and as a force of good,” said Perez.
“As the world progresses, we need to make sure that no one gets left behind even with the challenge of the global recession, war, and even domestically. There are still opportunities to take advantage of, so while we are cautiously optimistic in terms of investing, we are definitely bullish in the role social entrepreneurship will play in making a difference to leapfrog the social issues we are facing,” Perez added.
Ayque, co-founder and COO of Komunidad, a local startup utilizing data and analytics software to predict severe weather that could impact the country and business operations, felt confident the trend is there in terms of the importance of social impact over the constant pressure on delivering revenues and ROI.
“As long as you are solving a problem on the ground, it makes your business viable in terms of continuing operations. As founders, we need to be creative amidst the pressure, the looming recession, and the challenges that startups typically experience during these times,” said Ayque.
“We believe we are solving a problem for the bigger society in terms of the impact side, and then commercially we are confident that we are able to do that the way our business works. We have to be sharp amidst the pressure, and need to perform, anticipate risks, adjust from time to time, and monitor our progress regularly,” Ayque added.
When probed about the risks and challenges they each were facing, the panelists agreed the biggest challenge was in the lack of education and awareness of tech. They expressed the need to build internal capabilities within the organization for talent retention, accelerate the adoption of tech for stakeholders who are risk averse, and to bridge the learning gap of the communities to promote a more bottom approach to solving problems. And yes, to solve the problems of poor internet connection and communications infrastructure.
The Independent Investor is a community partner of MeetUP 2022 which held its final event for the year.