BPI Foundation, together with Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) has announced the ten Filipino social enterprises that will receive mentorship, incubation, and access to the appropriate financing options such as seed funding grants, debt and equity as part of BPI Sinag Accelerate 2016.
BPI Sinag Accelerate is the category of the BPI Sinag Business Challenge that aims to scale-up social enterprises that have been in operation for two years or more. The BPI Sinag Business Challenge is BPI Foundation’s iconic program that supports social enterprises, or businesses with the triple bottom line – people, planet, and profit.
The finalists are Churner Group Inc., Organic Options, Kapwa Greens, Camotes Coop, Akaba Ltd. Designs Co., Fresh Start Organics, Balangay’s Best, Lasiwwai, City Hub, and Dalereich Food Products.
Combining social impact and financial sustainability
Along with BPI Sinag Accelerate, the challenge also has the BPI Sinag U category, run in partnership with the Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship. This category is focused on empowering university students to start their own social enterprises.
BPI Foundation believes that investing in social enterprises is one of the most effective ways to promote inclusive growth, engaging more Filipinos in a shared commitment to make the country’s progress felt by every member of society. As they apply commercial methods to address problems in society, social enterprises are not only able to make a profound difference in the environments they operate in, they are also able to do so in a financially sustainable manner.
“Through BPI Sinag, BPI Foundation hopes to foster an innovative ecosystem that optimizes social good for depth and breadth of impact. It is one of our iconic programs that aligns to the Bank’s core competency and actively supports the micro-small-enterprises development thrust of the government in its overall inclusive growth agenda,” said Fidelina Corcuera, Executive Director, BPI Foundation.
Launched in May this year, BPI Sinag Accelerate had received interest and applications from over 100 social enterprises from all over the country, representing different industries such as food, agriculture, fashion, technology, and services.
