Philippine tech startups were able to raise over $1 billion in 2 years, and a venture capital fund says the prospects for the country's tech startup scene remain bright.
"We are very bullish on the Philippines and we have big growth plans with Foxmont as well," said Jelmer David Ikink, founding partner of Foxmont Capital Partners--—the country’s first and only independent venture capital fund.
“We see deeper and broader founder base not just in Metro Manila but outside of Metro Manila as well, and we also see a number of our existing portfolio companies and other startups in the Philippines raising bigger rounds, larger investment amounts compared to what they would have been doing over the last couple of years.”
“So those combined efforts essentially show us that the ecosystem is maturing and with that needs to come additional capital as well from investors," he added.
Ikink said startups have a lot of opportunities in the Philippines thanks to its robust GDP growth, young population, high smartphone use, e-commerce boom, fast and accessible internet, as well as government programs on digitalization.
“Obviously we’ve seen a bit of dip during the pandemic, but that was a global phenomenon and an [extraneous] factor that the Philippines could not really control. Outside of that we’ve seen GDP growth that is unparalleled here in the region even, on average, and so, it has very strong economic tailwinds,” he said.
“If you look at the number of smartphones that Filipinos own, at the moment it’s 75 million, that’s on par with Indonesia, which has double the population of the Philippines,” he said.
“And while on those phones, Filipinos use social media a lot and are very active in livestreaming and purchasing goods and services through e-commerce platforms,” he added.