Earlier this week, local accelerator IdeaSpace showcased fourteen startups as part of the demo day of their program’s ninth cohort. These ventures offer innovations across wellness technologies, MSME digitalization, blockchain, and sustainability solutions. As recent graduates of the accelerator program, the cohort pitched their solutions to an online audience, calling for partners and investors to join them as they enter into the next phase of their journeys.
Looking beyond demo day, three of the presenting startups shared their upcoming milestones with The Independent Investor, highlighting the product launches and partnerships they’ll be actively raising funds for in the weeks to come.
Betterteem
With a roadmap of offerings ranging from employee sentiment analytics to mental health services, Betterteem provides employee experience solutions, catering initially to the business process outsourcing firms of the local IT-BPM sector. The startup was founded last December and is currently raising $350,000 in pre-seed funding to develop a mobile app slated for release in the second quarter of this year.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, Betterteem aims to launch BetterMind, an in-app service connecting employees with mental healthcare providers. By 2023, the team projects they will need to raise $2,000,000 in seed funding, followed by an additional $15,000,000 in pre-series A funding to allow them to expand their offerings and scale across APAC’s regional outsourcing market.
Fitscovery
Fitscovery is a digital platform connecting fitness professionals with users—whether individuals or teams—in need of online training. In developing their platform, the Fitscovery team initially focused on helping their pilot batch of instructors utilize their tools to digitize their practices. These tools include website creation, customer management. and scheduling features.
Now focusing on building client-facing features, Fitscovery is hoping to raise pre-seed funding within the quarter to be used towards developing a robust matchmaking recommendation engine to help users connect with the right fitness professionals.
Circula Recoon
Circula Recoon offers waste recovery services, repurposing items already set aside for disposal, and thereby extending their material life and usage. Their goal is to collect and recover waste to help Filipinos transition towards a more stable, circular economy.
Last month, Circula Recoon launched their B2B solution, servicing businesses looking for a better alternative to existing waste management processes. Today, they are in talks with a number of local government units to scale up their approach to waste recovery to service city-wide systems. According to the Circula Recoon team, they’ve already struck a partnership with Baguio City, and are in early-stage talks with other LGUs as well.
Working towards a more diverse ecosystem
Facilitated largely online, the IdeaSpace accelerator program’s latest batch saw their largest proportion of participants hailing from outside the national capital region to date. Of the fourteen presenters, six were headquartered outside NCR: OMG, Xalmeds, Dirtbag, Pic A Talk, Peddlr, and MAD Courses.
“Nearly half of the startups are non-NCR, which is truly something to be excited about,” said Eunice Braga, head of marketing and communications at IdeaSpace and QBO. “We hope to see more non-NCR startups participating in next year’s cohort.”
In addition to regional diversity, nearly half of these startups were led by female founders as well, a trend towards gender parity that IdeaSpace’s team hopes to see continue with future cohorts.