Philippine Startup Week 2022 (PHSW22), the country’s largest conference for startups kicked off its week-long hybrid event this morning at the Blue Leaf Events Pavilion, McKinley Taguig with an opening ceremony attended by various community partners, sponsors, VIPs, and startup founders.
Held from November 14 to 18,2022, Philippine Startup Week is now on its fourth run. Under this year’s theme, “Homegrown Heroes: Cultivating Future Tech Giants”, PHSW22 brings together the local startup community and showcases the various sectors, entities, and homegrown startups that contribute to the growing Philippine startup ecosystem.
The nationwide conference engages startup founders, investors, corporates, academia, media, and government agencies in order to promote collaboration, innovation, and generate the support needed to fuel growth for the startup ecosystem.
Organized by QBO Innovation Hub, the government sector through the Departments of Science and Technology, Trade & Industry, and Information and Communications Technology, together with other private agencies, PHSW22 will feature 100+ startups, 150+ plus speakers, 60+ online events, 20+ onsite events, 4 Night fests, and 160+ virtual booths.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Sec. Ivan John Uy formally opened the conference. “The Philippines struggled these past two years in the pandemic. We were one of the developing countries at the time with average digital literacy and minimal digital competency. An increasing challenge today is the digital divide, and we need to address this as a country,” he said in posing a challenge the audience.
Sec. Renato Solidum Jr. of the Department of Science and Technology, in his speech, lent his support. “This Startup Week is one of the modalities that we at DOST would push so we can show to the whole country and to our youth that science, technology and innovation is the way to go for economic development and the well-being of our Filipino people,” he said.
Usec. Rafaelita Aldaba of the Department of Trade and Industry likewise gave her support to the conference. “Amid the challenges the community faces, we have seen their success and we are bent on providing our startup community with the necessary support to succeed,” she said.
As each day of the five-day conference unfolds, participants will get a chance to participate in various online and onsite sessions revolving around five event tracks:
• Discover – to create awareness, educate, and promote startups and “techno-preneurship” to the youth and potential startup founders. PhilDev, Qubit Solutions, Plentina, Meta, Husay.co, the City Government of Bacoor, PLDT, Microsoft, and others will be presenting under this track.
• Develop – to provide startups with resources, information, and expertise to grow their ventures. ALLCARE, No-code Philippines, EXOASIA Innovation Hub, Embiggen Group, Xendit Philippines, 917 Ventures, Jobstreet, Endeavor Philippines, FEU Tech Innovation Center, Start Village, and Shell are some of the companies leading discussions this track.
• Collaborate – to explore synergies with corporates, government, the academe, and other ecosystem Stakeholders. Spearheading talks under this track are Embiggen Group, Behind Genius Ventures, BackEnd Capital, Bayfront Capital Advisors, Draper Startup House Manila, Accenture, AHG Lab, Plug and Play Tech Center, Peddlr PH, Filipina Homebased Moms, PLDT, among others.
• Invest – to create an avenue to access capital and engage with investors and potential partners. Foxmont Capital Partners, Manila Angel Investors Networking, Impact Pioneers Network, Round One, IGNITE Philippines, Index Asia, La French Tech Philippines, Seedstars, Villgro Philippines and others represent the investor sector-led topics under this track.
• Showcase- to feature high potential and fast-growing Filipino startups. Featured topics in this final track include “Top 100 Startup SHOWCASE” by QBO, “Homegrown Climate Tech Heroes” by New Energy Nexus Philippines, “TechnopreneurCHIP 101” by SULONG Central Luzon TBI Consortium, “The Future of Circular Economy Startups in the Philippines” by Benilde Hi-Fi, “Women as Builders” by iDEYA, Miriam College- TBI and UPGRADE Innolab, among others.
Night Fest networking events happening onsite beginning November 15 are sponsored by Qapita, AWS, 917Ventures, KodeGo and Microsoft.
Rene “Butch” Meily, president of IdeaSpace Foundation, a non-profit organization helping early-stage startup founders, closed the round of opening remarks with a message to the government partners. “We need the government to lead the way and make it easier to invest in the Philippines. And we need an that will drive growth and create jobs. If the government and private sector can come together, we can create successful startups,” he concluded.
PHSW22 is co-presented by PLDT, 917Ventures, Accelevents, AWS, Microsoft, Pilipinas Shell, along with Accenture, Meta, Xendit, Globe Business, Qapita, AHG, Jobstreet, AHG Lab, Great Deals, Paymongo, Cloudeats, PWC and Qubit.
If you have not registered, you may get free PHSW22 tickets and learn more about the event by visiting www.phstartupweek.com.