MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Connectivity Economy thrives on unique ideas and innovative strategies, all of which are in the core of what Globe Telecom’s wholly-owned subsidiary Kickstart Ventures, Inc. has been trying to achieve since 2012. At the adobo Festival of Ideas 2019, its Co-Founder and President Minette Navarrete shared how this came into fruition as she emphasized the value of investing in technology to build a more connected future for the Philippines.
Kickstart Ventures is a Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) firm that invests in early- to early-growth stage tech companies from the Philippines and overseas by providing funding, market access, business connections, and expertise so that they have a better shot at success. It has invested in 42 companies from seven countries since it burst into the local startup scene in 2012.
As Navarrete put it, “We (Kickstart Ventures)
She then shared with the crowd of students, young professionals, and advertising/marketing experts the investments themes that Kickstart Ventures is using to look for future investments:
- The Frictionless Future — These are business ventures that aim to improve and enhance the value of human capital and human experiences through eCommerce and digital technology. Moving towards a “sharing
economy” where everything is more accessible to everyone, regardless of social class or status. - Automation to Augmentation — From a period where mankind is gradually becoming more familiar with the concept of automation (self-regulating
technology being programmed to do certain things), we are now moving towards augmentation (smart technology exhibiting artificial intelligence and machine learning). - Smart Living — Focusing more on the external and physical world, these are ideas that amplify the construction and development of smart communities, cities, buildings, and citizens. These are business ventures that will totally transform the day-to-day life of society as we know it with the introduction of new business structures.
- A World of Plenty — As Navarrete put it, these are “emerging technologies that will reframe scarcity and abundance of resources,” in a time when these tops the list of global concerns society is facing today. Businesses are now looking into how the environment can be affected by their operations, especially in terms of energy storage, clean energy, waste management, food, health, education, etc.
Navarrete emphasized how Kickstart Ventures, as part of the whole Globe family, is moving towards a more connected world through its businesses connecting communities, divers
To end, she wrapped up her session with a quote from Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, CEO of Ayala Corporation, the group of companies that Globe belongs to: “Companies that do not innovate run the risk of being irrelevant. We need to be proactive in finding gaps in our current systems and areas ripe for transformation, and we need to act swiftly, even if it means we have to be the ones to disrupt ourselves.” — Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, CEO of Ayala Corporation.
Minette Navarrete went more in-depth in talking about the ways Kickstart Ventures looks into connecting the world by supporting the businesses that can jumpstart society into the future in her session here:
