U-Hop impresses guests and judges, wins Jakarta 2015 pitch battle

The seats and aisles were jam-packed at Tech in Asia Jakarta 2015 as seven up-and-coming entrepreneurs from across Asia took to the main stage to pitch their startups in front of hundreds of guests. But it came down to the opinions of three esteemed judges, with extensive backgrounds in venture capital, to choose a single winner.

Stefan Jung, managing partner at Venturra Capital; Michael Lints, venture partner at Golden Gate Ventures; and Teddy Himler, vice president at SoftBank China & India Holdings unanimously chose – drumroll, please – U-Hop.

“They found an area that is a bit of a blindspot [for competitors] and have acquired 550,000 passengers in just four months,” Teddy tells Tech in Asia. “[U-Hop is] a great acquisition prospect with a really, really solid business model.”

(L-R) Judges Teddy Himler, Michael Lints, and Stefan Jung.

Manila-based U-Hop is an Uber for shuttle buses in the Philippines. The capital is known for having the worst urban traffic in the world, and it doesn’t need any more cars on the road than it currently has. In many ways, Uber and Grabtaxi are just adding to the gridlock. U-Hop’s answer? Putting regular commuters in vans. Trips are scheduled and paid for in advance and cost an average of just US$2.50 per day (roundtrip). An on-demand option is metered like other taxi services.

See: Philippines startup is gunning to beat Uber at its own game

U-Hop founder Marvin Dela Cruz takes home US$10,000 and will have his startup’s name engraved on the Tech in Asia Arena Champion trophy. But more importantly, U-Hop leaves Tech in Asia Jakarta 2015 with bragging rights as the hottest early-stage startup from the region’s largest-ever tech and startup conference.

You can read about all seven Arena startups here. If you think you have what it takes to pitch at our Singapore conference next year, you can find more details about that event here.