Stephanie Frances Augustin

TechNode Global’s series on the Philippines delves into why Filipino startups are attracting venture capital (VC) money in droves. In this fourth and final part, TechNode Global recaps recent government initiatives to spur the Philippine startup ecosystem, and get Philippine founders’ regulatory wishlists.

In this third part, we explore how much Covid-accelerated digitization boosted the country’s ‘Iron Triangle’ – e-commerce, logistics, and fintech – startups, and how the startup Davids are battling the Goliath super apps to carve out their own niches.

viAct, an AI construction tech (contech) startup based out of Hong Kong, automates construction monitoring using a combination of computer vision, edge devices and a mobile app.

Mizuho Bank, one of Japan's largest banking groups, is the latest big backer of Philippine digital bank Tonik, leading its $131 million Series B round of funding.

Etaily, a fast-growing Philippines-based e-commerce-enabler led by former Zalora executives, announced today that it has wrapped up a $4.3 million seed extension round, on top of its initial $1.6 million funding round announced in August 2021.

The funds will be used to expand Crowdo’s neobank platform in Singapore and Indonesia and scale its ESG financing portfolio. Crowdo is headquartered in Singapore but fully licensed by the Indonesian financial authority Otoritas Jasa Keuangan for digital lending in since 2017. The fintech is also registered with the Securities Commission Malaysia.

Following the acquisition, the combined SWAG and GEKO group plan to hold a pre-Series A funding round, with a combined entity value of $25 million in early 2022.

L'Oréal will be doubling down on social commerce with an aim to roll out its social commerce initiative to 250 salons across Malaysia in 2022. 

Tonik, the Philippines' first digital-only neobank, has surpassed PHP5B ($100M) in consumer deposits, just eight months after its launch of commercial operations.