Thank you so much, RJ! So good to see you after a long while!
A big shout out to all the visionaries, innovators, game-changers, key influencers, startup founders and future Unicorns in attendance here at IGNITE 2020 Cyber!
And since this is already the last day of this IGNITE 2020 Cyber event, let me take a bit more time to greet our friends who have been with us for past sessions spread over 6 days including this one, spread over a period of 2 working weeks.
Minasan Konnichiwa to our friends and partners from Japan!
And to our friends in the startup ecosystem in the Kansai region, special greetings of MAIDO MAIDO! MOKKATTE MAKKA? In Kansai-ben or the Kansai dialect that’s usual greeting, actually a question meaning: ARE YOU MAKING MONEY?
And extending that greeting to all our startups and entrepreneurs here, let me say again: MOKATTE MAKKA? (are you making money?)
And of course to our friends from the ASEAN region greetings of SAWASDEE KRAP to our friends in Thailand; CHUM-REE-UHP-SOO-UH to our friends in Cambodia; SABAIDEE to our friends in Lao; MINGALABAH to our friends in Myanmar; XIN CHAO to our friends in Vietnam; SELAMAT PETANG (Brunei), SELAMAT SIANG (Indonesia), SELAMAT TENGAH HARI (Malaysia) and greetings of peace to all ASSALAM ALAIKUM WARAHMATU ALLAHI WA BARAKATU; MAGANDANG HAPON; GOOD AFTERNOON!
The DTI-EMB congratulates TechShake, Brainsparks, Dentsu, partners and collaborators for successfully conducting this first ever IGNITE 2020 Cyber in full digital mode, even as the world is still in the midst of a health and economic crisis caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.
DTI-EMB, as IGNITE’s partner since their first conference in 2017 (mainly a pitching event), has from the beginning shared its vision of bridging the gap between startups and corporates, and even non-tech industries, while at the same time promoting the PH startup ecosystem to the rest of the world.
This year’s fully digital edition of IGNITE 2020 Cyber is indeed a perfect example of how technology and innovation can respond to the needs of the here and now of the ongoing global pandemic while reimagining the next “new normal” in the post-pandemic world, moving forward.
Using available technology, more than 1200 participants, mostly physically distant, from 25 countries were able to gather, connect, exchange ideas, and collaborate.
Technology and innovation brought us together despite the pandemic. Technology and innovation will surely help us shape the next “new normal”.
In the past five sessions, which began last week, startups participated in the Wildfire Pitch Competitions for the various verticals, offering to provide solutions to pain points that are presently challenging everyone and prepare stakeholders to cope with the next “New Normal”.
And now to provide more excitement to this final day of IGNITE 2020 CYBER, allow me to congratulate and re-introduce the winners of the Wildfire Pitching competitions over the past 5 sessions in their respective verticals and who will be competing today for top honors:
Under health tech, the winner was MyGolana a PH startup working to help address the growing mental health crisis by providing affordable and accessible counseling solutions.
In EdTech, the winner was Edukasyon.ph a PH startup offering an education technology platform that aims for deeper student engagement including more educational counseling, deemed highly essential services to help enable the Philippine education system operating under great stress under a VUCA environment.
For Fin tech, the winner was Nextpay, a PH startup providing an easy solution for small businesses to manage and track their finances.
Winning the E-commerce competition was 1Export – yet another PH startup which provides a one-stop, end-to-end platform to help small businesses in the Philippines to export, by addressing their lack of knowledge and experience in market compliance and market access.
Winning the competition for the Workspace vertical, was PEAK, a Thai startup offering online accounting software that allows businesses to track business information instantly and It allows businesses to manage their account administration from any device.
Of the five finalists, FOUR are Philippine startups which for me personally, really demonstrates that the Philippines is not lacking in entrepreneurial ideas and talent and that it has great potential as a competitive and nurturing startup ecosystem.
Based on this year’s Startup Genome Report, now is the time when the support of government to the startup ecosystem is most crucial. While more established startups have runways that help them to adapt and easily pivot to survive this present crisis, many more startups are still struggling with dwindling or no revenues, 7 months into this pandemic.
The report also noted that startups have been proven to help drive productivity and innovation of an economy. Startups raise the competition in any industry and improve the adoption rate of new technologies, especially during global crises.
Today there will also be workshops to tackle topics from training of potential female entrepreneurs to available AI/ML technologies offered by AWS, corporate innovation, to startups registering for IPO in the Japanese Market.
As we move forward with the implementation of the Philippine Innovation Act and Innovative Startup Act, I am hopeful that not only will there be more support from the government, but also from the private sector, particularly the corporates, to take notice of the value of PH startups in our economy.
As Peter Thiel so aptly said in his seminal book from Zero to One that “Bureaucratic hierarchies move slowly, and entrenched interests shy away from risk. In the most dysfunctional organizations, signaling that work is being done becomes a better strategy for career advancement than actually doing work”. I urge our colleagues in government and our friends in the private sector to avoid this hierarchical trap and instead remain faithful to the WON approach, that is, the whole of nation approach to build a robust, resilient, and competitive startup ecosystem.
I wish everyone all the best for the rest of IGNITE 2020 CYBER! All stay strong, healthy and safe!
THANK YOU! ♦
Date of Release: 28 October 2020