Philippines unveils startup roadmap, pushes for senate bill

DOST-ICTO office and startup community turn over the Philippine startup roadmap to the office of Senator Paolo “Bam” Aquino.

Looks like the Philippines has started to get serious about building its startup ecosystem.

At the 3rd Geeks on a Beach international conference in Boracay this week, the government and stakeholders in the startup community unveiled a roadmap, a framework for developing the startup ecosystem in the hopes it would become the next “sunshine” industry following in the footsteps of outsourcing.

But that wasn’t the only good news: the roadmap will be the basis of a startup bill filed in the Senate, raising optimism that much-needed policies will finally be laid down.

Authored by entrepreneur and Senator Paolo “Bam” Aquino, this bill is one important piece in achieving what the roadmap envisions: 500 startups with total funding of US$200 million and valuation of US$2 billion by 2020.

“This journey started a little over two years ago when we started asking ourselves what should be the right role for the government in the development of the startup ecosystem. We gathered members of the community and started a conversation. The community came up with a long list of things we need to do. We will work on very important strategies especially in the areas of policy and infrastructure,” explained Mon Ibrahim, deputy director of the Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO), which led the initiative.

The government is “playing a catch-up game,” he said, but better late than never.

Venture capital firm Kickstart Ventures’ Christian Besler agrees. “[The roadmap] is a good starting point. We (public) tend to critique the government, but it’s actually good to see that it’s heavily involved now. It’s marching along, not just following. It’s saying ‘we want to be equals’ and that means they have to adapt to [our] pace.”

The roadmap was drafted by the DOST-ICTO, with the help of Kickstart Ventures, incubator-accelerator Ideaspace, entrepreneurs, startup founders, and the academe.

Building a thriving ecosystem and crafting the roadmap are similar in that they both require close collaboration between the public and private sectors. Startup stakeholders couldn’t have emphasized this more during the conference.

“This roadmap aims to develop a coherent and consistent strategic plan for the country’s innovative ecosystem, engaging members of both public and private sectors. This is a project for the startup community and by the community itself,” Ibrahim said.

Beryl Li, senior consultant for the crafting of the roadmap, told the audience: “We all came together in one room, a first in history, to talk about what the Philippines should do to push the ecosystem forward.”

Jojo Flores, co-founder of Plug and Play, said the roadmap puts everyone in one page. “All the developments are happening in individual silos. It was important to have a common goal. This is the first step we’ve taken.”

“We’re moving towards one vision, one direction,” Ideaspace co-founder and president Earl Valencia said, echoing Flores’ point.

Action plans

A longer wish list