The Philippines just got its first billion-dollar startup

A prefab home designed by David Salle. Photo credit: Revolution Precrafted.

The Philippines has hit a huge milestone: it just got its first unicorn startup. Revolution Precrafted, a developer of prefabricated designer homes, has raised its series B round co-led by Singapore’s K2 VC, valuing the company at over US$1 billion, according to two sources familiar with the deal.

That makes Revolution – which is just about to turn two years old in December – one of, if not, the fastest to achieve billion-dollar status in Southeast Asia, one of the sources said and this was confirmed by Tech in Asia data.

The startup’s new prominent investor K2 was founded by venture capitalist Ozi Amanat, who’s known for his investments in Alibaba and Twitter before their public offerings.

K2 counts several unicorns in its portfolio – Spotify, Magic Leap, Paytm, and Palantir.

“Large international family offices have participated in the round as well,” the other source stated. We’ve reached out to Revolution and K2 for their statements.

It is a rare breakout story for the Philippines’ nascent technology scene where startup programs and policies, as well as funding are yet to catch up with neighbor markets.

“We need more success stories like Revolution to inspire other young people to take a risk and start their own companies,” said Butch Meily, president of Filipino incubator-accelerator Ideaspace and Qbo Innovation Hub.

The man behind the startup, Robbie Antonio, belongs to one of the Philippines’ wealthiest families that has built its fortune in real estate.

A voracious art collector, Antonio is the brains behind billions worth of his family’s projects done in collaboration with big names such as Forbes Media, Armani/Casa, Versace Home, Paris Hilton, and the Trump group.

He’s turned to entrepreneurship to make designer homes accessible to more people.

Robbie Antonio. Photo credit: Revolution Precrafted.

His company sells prefab homes conceived by world-renowned architects and designers like Zaha Hadid, David Salle, Tom Dixon, and Marcel Wanders. The homes are priced at an average of US$120,000. They can be ordered from the company’s site and shipped anywhere in the globe in at least 90 days.