Early-stage technology incubator IdeaSpace Foundation (IdeaSpace) launched its fifth annual national startup competition last December 6, opening the submission of startup ideas for 2017.
This year, IdeaSpace has announced that it will accept 15 startups into its final stage of the competition compared to the 10 finalists of previous years.
“We’ve seen very inspiring stories of startup founders joining IdeaSpace over the years, from husband-and-wife tandems to students looking to make their own mark in the world,” said the company’s Executive Director Diane Eaustaqio, “This year, we’re looking to extend our support to more startup founders with burning passion to start up their own business and help the country progress with the help of technology and innovation,” she added.
The 15 finalists in the competition will receive a PHP 500,000 equity-free funding with IdeaSpace not having any stake in the startups. They will also receive support for housing, transportation, incorporation, office space, communication, software, training and mentoring from First Pacific companies.
To coincide with the announcement, IdeaSpace also held a Demo Day at the Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay where startups that made the cut in the previous years of the competition get to show to visitors their ideas and the progress that they have achieved with the help of the competition and their mentors.
“The biggest advantage of being part of IdeaSpace is it made me look bigger than what I actually was at the beginning. And the big advantage of this newer batch of startups is that they can learn from our experiences. They don’t need to go through what I went through, so I think the important thing is that they know what they’re getting into and they have to be prepared,” said Au Mendoza-Soriano, CEO and Co-Founder of PinoyTravel a transportation booking startup that was a previous finalist in IdeaSpace.
Interested people may submit their ideas through an online submission form. Deadline for submissions is on January 12, 2017.