{"id":5809,"date":"2014-07-25T15:16:42","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T07:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=5809"},"modified":"2014-07-25T15:20:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T07:20:13","slug":"us100-million-raised-fund-tech-startups-ph-around-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2014\/07\/25\/us100-million-raised-fund-tech-startups-ph-around-world\/","title":{"rendered":"US$100 million being raised to fund tech startups in PH and around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local technology startups have a chance at getting a piece of a US$100-million (PhP4.3 billion) fund that is being raised to invest in startups around the world, including the Philippines.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fund is being raised by the 500 Startups, the biggest group of investors, venture capitalists, startup founders and technopreneurs from Silicon Valley, which is currently in the Philippines to gain insight of the country\u2019s startup ecosystem and to scout for investment opportunities from local technology startups.<\/p>\n

Seventy-five percent of the fund will be for US-based startups while the remaining 25% will be allocated to global startups.<\/p>\n

The group, known globally as the organizer of the group tour \u201cGeeks on a Plane (GOAP),\u201d consists of more than 30 \u201cgeeks\u201d and is part of the invite-only GOAP tour that will stay in the Philippines from July 23 to 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the highest concentration of investors and entrepreneurs in the history of the Philippine startup ecosystem,\u201d said Dave McClure, Founding Partner at 500 Startups.<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/a>

Just some of the participants of Geeks on a Plane (GOAP), an invite-only tour of startup founders, venture capitalists, and investors from Silicon Valley. The group is led by Dave McClure of 500 Startups (seated at the center in white 500 Startups shirt) and includes IdeaSpace Founder and President Earl Martin Valencia (standing, center) and Voyager Innovations FVP and Group Head Stephen Misa (standing, gray jacket).<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe Philippines is a country full of smart and creative people \u2013 it\u2019s a perfect place for entrepreneurship to flourish and grow. 500 Startups is psyched to be here in Manila and we aim to be a frequent visitor to the Philippines,\u201d McClure adds.<\/p>\n

Series of tech events<\/strong><\/p>\n

During their three-day visit, the GOAP participants will be able to gain and share insights about the local market via a Tech Summit being organized by the Asian Institute of Management, supported by IdeaSpace.<\/p>\n

Topics to be discussed include observations about Southeast Asia and the emerging trends in the Philippines, as well as the best practices on innovation ecosystems in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

The GOAP contingent will also visit selected firms which will give homegrown startups a chance to network and gain valuable insights from investors and founders in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Some of the participants will be present during the Startup Grind event on July 25 and the second Manila staging of AngelHack, the world\u2019s largest hackathon event to be held on July 26.<\/p>\n

500 Startups has funded hundreds of technology startups around the world. These startups include the likes of Marketbot, currently the world\u2019s most popular 3D printing platform; and Viki, an online TV site which was later acquired by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten.<\/p>\n

The California-based seed fund and incubator has also invested in technology startups in the Philippine-owned ZipMatch, an online real-estate platform that is aiming to revolutionize the home-buying experience in the country.<\/p>\n

Prominent features of a potential startup<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked about the prominent features they are looking for in a startup, McClure said they are looking at the product and consumer opportunities. The startups have the potential to grow.\u00a0 They are also looking at companies that have functional products and should be revenue-generating.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s top wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. serves as the country host, alongside technology incubator and accelerator IdeaSpace Foundation, Inc., Voyager Innovations, Inc., and the Smart Developer Network, Smart Bro.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very proud to host the very first \u201cGeeks on a Plane\u201d contingent to land in Philippine soil,\u201d said Earl Martin Valencia, President and Co-Founder at Ideaspace Foundation, Inc. \u201cThat the Philippines became one of the stops for this year\u2019s GOAP trip to Southeast Asia is a testament to the vast potential of local startups and the remarkable growth of the Philippine startup ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event is also supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Science, Technology, Research, and Innovation for Development (STRIDE) Program.<\/p>\n

The GOAP participants, including IdeaSpace\u2019s Valencia, along with Stephen Misa and Dindo Marzan of Smart subsidiary Voyager Innovations, have already explored the startup ecosystem of Singapore, Bangkok, Thailand, and Jakarta, Indonesia before proceeding to the Philippines. The regional (Southeast Asia) tour started on July 13 and concludes on July 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local technology startups have a chance at getting a piece of a US$100-million (PhP4.3 billion) fund that is being raised to invest in startups around the world, including the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,19,25],"tags":[1901,1902,1600,799,1049],"class_list":["post-5809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-laptops-computers","category-headlines","category-software","tag-500-startups","tag-geeks-on-a-plane","tag-ideaspace","tag-startup","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}