IN a move to promote Philippine start-ups and increase their global connectedness, the Department of Trade and Industry, through the Philippine Trade and Investment Center-Taipei and DTI-Export Marketing Bureau, and in cooperation with QBO Innovation Hub, facilitated the participation of two local start-ups in the recently concluded 2018 IDEAS Show held in Taipei, Taiwan.
The two start-ups—Pushkart.ph and Empleo—were among the 41 start-ups from seven countries that participated in the six-minute pitch competition held at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center on July 24, 2018. The seven countries from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) represented were South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Pushkart.ph is an online supermarket with a mission to make shopping fun and easy by delivering fresh groceries and medicine to the consumer’s doorstep from retail stores around the city.
Empleo maximizes job placement in the technical services industry by offering a “Platform as a Service” that matches jobs with candidates based on qualification, training, location and other preferences automatically; and providing insights, through data, about job influxes, demand and placement rates.
Awarded with the Jury Gold Awards were Dipp, Uspace, Olis Innovation, Toss Lab, Luxrobo and EzQ Co.
Dipp is the company behind the “Software as a Service” (SaaS) marketing creative automation platform, helping business with digital advertising and social-media engagement.
Uspace is a private parking-space sharing provider, while Olis Innovation is a Customer Relationship Management and marketing SaaS, using big data and artificial intelligence to help offline businesses manage and retarget their customers through LINE and Facebook chatbots.
Toss Lab is an office messenger providing effective and efficient communication at workplaces, while Luxrobo is a magnetic modular device for the building and connecting of do-it-yourself, Internet of Things and robotic creations.
EzQ Co. provides an ecosystem for online merchants, shippers and buyers.
A day before the competition, the participants and delegates from other Apec economies, such as China, Indonesia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and the United States visited two International Startup Accelerators, namely Hsinming Youth Hub (HYH) and Andong Youth Startup Hub (AYSH), both located in Taoyuan City.
HYH is a 2,380-square-meter space that provides 12 independent offices, coworking space, conference rooms, communication areas and self-built servers, and other software and hardware devices.
AYSH was established by the Department of Youth Affairs of the Taoyuan City government to cooperate with Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan. This space is dedicated for youth in Taiwan to help them start a business on the information and communications technology industry. AYSH focuses on the application of augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.
The group also visited EXPO Taipei, where they were briefed on available resources for start-ups and Taiwan’s policies encouraging the growth and development of the start-up community. The delegates were also toured in the different facilities located at the venue, such as Aquaponics, Fashion Block and Fablab Taipei.
Now on its 11th year, IDEAS Show 2018 has already incubated 870 startups; has been participated in by 22,000 attendees, 17,640 pitching competition participants and 440 exhibiting teams; has generated 870 media reports; and has facilitated 319 international contests, 436 international exhibitions and $300 million in investment.
The Philippine delegation—composed of representatives from the DTI-EMB, DTI-Office of the Undersecretary for Trade and Investment Promotion Group (OUTIPG), and the two local startups—was led by the PTIC-Taipei who also facilitated the country’s participation to the event.