Venture builder 917Ventures said the startup ecosystem in the Philippines, being nascent, has a lot to learn from the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Natasha Bautista, head of Growth and Programs at 917 Ventures, said in an email interview the SVB fallout will undoubtedly make startup ecosystems and investors around the world more cautious in the near-term.
However, Bautista believes the SVB situation will not have a huge impact on the Philippine startup industry as a whole.
Nevertheless, she said, the SVB situation will provide many lessons in how other ecosystems respond to it “so we can shape, improve, and safeguard our own industry as we continue to grow.”
Bautista assured as a corporate venture builder backed by the Globe Group and Ayala Group, 917Ventures is able to provide companies and startups in its portfolio the resources and support they need to maximize their impact.
“As such, our ventures do not need to rely on outside funding to accelerate their growth,” she added.
Still, she noted that despite having the backing of a strong corporation and its partners, 917Ventures remains prudent in carefully evaluating and validating its ventures before it proceeds in accelerating their growth.
“This is what makes us different from venture capital firms, venture builders like 917Ventures are not only funders but partners of each of our startups,” Bautista said.
According to Bautista, the Philippine startup scene is one of the fastest growing startups scenes in the region, citing the Foxmont Philippine Venture Capital 2022 report which listed the country among the top 20 startup ecosystems in Asia-Pacific.
“The Philippines also has the second mover’s advantage—we’re learning from the other countries and ecosystems and we’re making things better by localizing,” she said.
Growth is led by tech-based startups especially as the pandemic spurred the rapid adoption of digital solutions, especially in the fintech and payment solutions sector.
As the largest venture builder in the Philippines, 917Ventures has focused on industries with huge impact: fintech (GCash, FundSpace), Climate Tech (Gogoro), media and entertainment (Kroma), e-commerce and loyalty (RUSH, Rappit), business-to business Software as a Service or B2B SaaS (Capitan), digital health (KonsultaMD), adtech and data (AdSpark, Inquiro, m360, DeepSea) and education (KodeGo, EdVenture).
Bautista said this year, 917Ventures will focus on micro, small and medium enterprises digitalization/B2B SaaS to support the economy; and climate tech to future-proof the country.
“We are venture builders and unlike venture capitals and incubators, we are involved every step of the way in our startups— from ideation, to launch and scale—ensuring that they have the resources and guidance to succeed,” she said.
917Ventures also has entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) who guide the ventures.
Out of three EIRs, two are women, Ina Gervasio and Carla Sy Su, who have demonstrated invaluable skills in multitasking, stress management, and project management
Bautista and 917Ventures are both known to champion women-led startups as well as gender equality and women in tech.
