MANILA, PHILIPPINES – It has been predicted that by 2050, the Philippines will reach 145 million in population and become the 16th largest economy in the world. The startup scene here is very active due to the vibrant ecosystem of investors, angels, and government support.
Aside from the Philippines, there are nine other countries with active startup scenes that are participating in this year’s ASEAN Rice Bowl, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Organized by New Entrepreneurs Foundation (myNEF), the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2019 aims to celebrate the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship of startups across Southeast Asia.
Aside from rewarding innovation, excellence, and entrepreneurship in startups across the region, The awards also recognizes the risks involved in developing a startup, and the determination it takes to drive their company to success.
Now in its fifth year, the program seeks to connect the ASEAN economic community and empower each country’s local economy with startups and scaleups.
This event is the official Southeast Asia circuit for the Global Startup Awards. It’s divided into three rounds—national, regional, and global. The winners of the Regional Rice Bowl will represent the Southeast Asian region at the Global Startup Awards finale in 2020.
Winners are selected by panels of esteemed Juries who consist of subject matter experts and respected leaders in the startup community. Members of the public can also vote for their Favorite Startups for the People’s Choice category.
The official launch event of Rice Bowl 2019 was held at the brand owner and organizer’s own backyard, Oasis Discovery Center on the 19th of June 2019. At the event, Rice Bowl Ambassadors were recognized for the role they play as advocates of the competition.
This year’s ASEAN Rice Bowl started last May 27, 2019 as the nominations opened for all start-ups. Its official launch event was held last June 19, 2019 at Oasis Discovery Center, Malaysia, and officiated by the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development, YB. Datuk Wira Dr. Mohd Hatta Ramli. Last September 4, 2019, the national finalists have been announced.
The national finalists for the Philippines are the following:
Best Newcomer
Best Coworking Space
Best Fintech Startup
Best Foodtech/Agritech Startup:
Founder of the Year:
Investor of the Year:
Best AI Machine Learning Startup:
Best Life Helper:
Startup of the Year:
Best Accelerator or Incubator Program
Best E-commerce & Supply Chain Startup
This coming October, The ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards2019 will be announcing the national winners for all 10 ASEAN countries.
“Rice Bowl aims to give recognition to startups that are solving local issues in their own country and ready to scale up. Winners from each country will move on to the next round at the Regional event in January 2020 in Kuala Lumpur. We have curated an exciting 2 days event that focuses on experiences and knowledge sharing, and an exclusive Investor and Business Matching session for the National Winners” said Shariza Abdullah, the Project Director of ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards.
In the Philippines, Rice Bowl is supported by Ambassadors who are ecosystem players and supporters such as Salt, Delfin, The After Six Club, PhilDev, LaunchGarage, Aspace and TechShake. The Ambassadors are the advocates and advisors in the national level competition.
One of the organizations partnered with the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2019 is Ambidextr, a content marketing and events management company focused on serving tech companies in the Asia Pacific.
“The ASEAN Rice Bowl celebrates the startup communities in the world’s fastest-growing region. All the finalists are promising startup companies who will surely make an impact in sustaining this growth and bringing it to the next level by creating great value,” said Junie Agcaoili, the managing partner of Ambidextr.
For more updates and information, visit the ASEAN Rice Bowl 2019’s website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
ABOUT NEW ENTREPRENEURS FOUNDATION
myNEF is a non-profit organization supporting the development of the ICT and Creative Industry in Malaysia by developing strategic programs to boost the development of businesses in the country.
ABOUT ASEAN RICE BOWLS STARTUP AWARDS
The ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards (Rice Bowl) seeks to connect and empower the ASEAN Economic Community to power up their local economies with startups and scaleups. The program has been organised by the New Entrepreneurs Foundation (myNEF) since 2015.
Rice Bowl rewards innovation, excellence, and best practice in startups and ecosystem players across ASEAN. We also celebrate the ASEAN community’s spirit of diversity in entrepreneurship to solve national-level rice bowl issues and the potential for solutions to be replicated across borders.
