8 start-ups get P100T seed funding

OUT of 21 start-ups that made it as finalists, eight were granted P100,000 each in seed money during the culmination of yesterday's Hack2Hatch: from Hacker to Founder.

Members of winning team Orchestrack, an app that captures broadcast feeds from various sources to track and audit broadcast content, were also chosen to join the Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) Economic Forum in Manila.

While the seed money is seen as a good start for these start-ups to continue developing their business, PhilDev chairman Diosdado Banatao said those that won should not stop there.

“When you win here, it doesn't mean you're done. You will need to raise more money and get the message out to more potential investors,” he told participants.

Banatao also told them not to rely on just one investor but to seek as many. He also asked that they commit to using the seed money to continue developing their products.

Banatao, who is also a managing partner of Tallwood Venture Capital, said the road to success is not easy, saying that aside from a lot of passion, some teams also need a “little bit of luck.”

“But I also believe in making your own luck, by using your own talents,” he said.

Teams were divided into different groups–social media and entertainment; learning and employment; and e-commerce. The eight winners were a combination of all three.

Families

These include Family Ko, a web and mobile application allowing long-distance families to spend time together by offering communication tools to engage overseas Filipinos and their families; MRT Tracker, an app that tracks Manila's mass rapid transit; Orchestrack; Pinoy Auto Trader, a tool to connect car buyers with private car sellers and car dealers; and Pancake Servers, a community-made gaming server hosted on cloud drivers targeting Southeast Asian gamers.

Also named winners were StaffWisely, a staff marketplace for IT outsourcing companies; online recruitment website H1RED; and social e-commerce platform Bolooka.

Mentors who met with the finalists said the winners were better prepared than others when it came to their overall concepts and preparing projections for the business side of things. They also noted that some startups needed to improve on focusing on their target markets, with some mentors worrying that the creative tendencies of team members would lead them to go from one opportunity to the next while losing focus on the target.

Hack2Hatch is part of PhilDev's banner event, "Silicon Valley Comes to the Philippines." It is a four-day mentorship and speaker series aiming to take Filipino innovation and entrepreneurship towards collective empowerment and economic development. It is a kickstart to the PhilDev Economic Forum.