The Philippines’ Startup Scene

At present, the Philippines is ranked sixth among startup ecosystems in Southeast Asia and 59th globally, according to StartupBlink.
 
Looking at Tech in Asia data, the Philippines saw a sharp rise in funding from 2020 to 2021 from US$180 million to US$863.7 million – a record high. While the country’s startups were hit by the investment slowdown in 2022, last year’s figure is still the second-highest amount of funding raised in the last five years.
 
The Philippines has produced several startups of note, such as its two unicorns: Mynt, which operates mobile wallet GCash, and Voyager Innovations, the firm behind payments platform Maya.
 
It’s also home to prominent names in the Web3 space, such as Yield Guild Games and Coins.ph, which was acquired first by Gojek in 2019 and then by former Binance CFO Wei Zhou in 2022.
 

• Fintech: Filipinos are no strangers to fintech. The country has had mobile money offerings since the early 2000s. And in 2021, 36% of Filipino adults owned an e-money account, up from 8% in 2019. However, banking penetration in the country remains low at just 56%, and many lack access to financial services such as loans and investments, presenting a clear market opportunity for startups.
• Ecommerce: The country’s ecommerce sector was estimated to have grown by 31.3% in 2022 to reach US$9.8 billion and is expected to reach US$12 billion by 2025. Within the vertical, social commerce is seeing significant growth. Startups such as GrowSari and Kumu, which support social commerce and livestreaming, have raised significant funding in the last few years.
• Web3: The Philippines is an exciting launchpad for crypto and Web3 startups. A survey conducted by UOB found that 33% of respondents in the Philippines have invested funds into a crypto exchange, the second-highest rate in Southeast Asia after Thailand. The country is also ranked second on Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index, and according to CoinGecko, Philippine nationals have the biggest interest in Web3 gaming globally.

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Source: Tech in Asia