The Strategic and Collaborative Alliance for Leveraging Ecosystem of Startups in the National Capital Region (SCALE NCR) is setting up Metro Manila as a major investors’ destination for building and supporting startups through a map to help expand 100 Filipino startups next year.

The map will show startup-centric educational institutions and innovation hubs, investors groups, mentorship and training programs of city governments, and the number of startups in each of the 17 cities in the NCR.

With the map, SCALE NCR said the Philippines can attract more local and foreign investors to upskill entrepreneurs and infuse capital into local startups in expanding their operations.

“We have a lot of people who are returning home to join startups, students, and become entrepreneurs. The problem is how many of our startups have breached three years to survive?” Department of Science and Technology (DoST)-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development Chief Science Research Specialist Russell Pili said.

SCALE NCR

SCALE NCR added the map is part of its five-year Startup Development Roadmap, which includes the SCALE NCR Investors Network to help startups become established businesses.

The group now has 10 local investor-partners.

“We plan to raise the ranking of NCR in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index which ranks Manila between 81st and 90th as an emerging startup ecosystem,” Miriam College-Technology Business Incubator manager Cristina Ibanez said.

The map is targeted to be finished in October while SCALE NCR continues to attract more members into the group.

Established in 2022, SCALE NCR consists of colleges and universities, the DoST, and QBO which gathers industry professionals and businesspeople.

Some of the founding members include De La Salle Animo Labs, Miriam College-Technology Business Incubator, Adamson University-AduNest, Mapua University-Think & Thinker Laboratory, University of Santo Tomas Innovation Center, University of the Philippines Diliman-UPSCALE Innovation Hub, and Technological Institute of the Philippines-NITRO.

Unlike traditional businesses, startups maximize technologies to reach more customers and quickly tailor their products and services to customers’ needs.

More support

SCALE NCR is also set to launch the Startup Institute to conduct training sessions for all startup stakeholders, including local government units and small entrepreneurs.

“We are also finalizing our partnerships with online micro sellers and multi-purpose cooperatives. We want them to have the mindset in developing their own product and as well as innovating the products that they have, not to buy and sell only,” Ibanez said.

SCALE NCR now has 19,000 online sellers and cooperative members.

Apart from these, Ibanez said her group is reaching out to local government units to craft startup programs.