A slate of local incubators are being primed to expand their horizon into international markets with the help of academic and overseas incubation partners.
Eight Philippines-based incubators have been awarded government cash through a program set up by the Department of Science and Technology (Dost) to drive local startups toward international markets in collaboration with universities, Manila Bulletin reported on Thursday.
The cash comes through the government’s Technology Business Incubation (TBI) 4.0 initiative, which aims to upgrade the country’s regional TBI incubators to expose startups to international markets through incubation schemes, cross-border programs and capacity building.
The academic partners were named as University of the Philippines’s Upscale Innovation Hub, Mindano State University – Iligan Institute of Technology’s Ideya platform, Batangas State University’s Center for Technopreneurship and Innovation, West Visayas State University’s GTBI, De La Salle University’s Animo Labs and University of the Philippines Los Baños’s Sibol Labs.
TBI 4.0 is being supervised by startup-oriented public-private partnership QBO Innovation Hub with support from local incubation schemes IdeaSpace and Spring Valley.
It marks the latest iteration of Dost’s TBI framework, which has to date spawned 45 incubators and fostered more than 320 startups, generating 1,200 jobs for the national economy.
International partners of TBI 4.0 include Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, India-based impact unit Villgro’s Social Enterprise Ventures, and Singapore-based incubators BCB Blockchain and Spinoff Acadasia.
Fortunato dela Pena, secretary of Dost, said: “Through the Dost TBI 4.0 Program, we are currently levelling up our Dost TBIs to be at par with well-known foreign incubators and put the Philippines on the map in terms of services and startup support.
“We aim for global presence and offer our startups opportunities so they can scale and grow.”
