After two months of search and evaluation, BPI Foundation (BPIF) and the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) have recently shortlisted 20 social enterprises that will proceed to the next round of challenges as part of BPI Sinag Accelerate.
BPIF’s flagship program, BPI Sinag, aims to empower social entrepreneurs by providing them with intellectual, social, and financial capital through the access to mentorship and incubation, industry network, and grants, loans or equity. The BPI Sinag Accelerate category, run in partnership with PEF, is tailor-fit to scale-up social enterprises and make them investment-ready.
The top 20 finalists of BPI Sinag Accelerate represent different industries such as food, agriculture, fashion, and services. They were chosen from over 100 participants who submitted online or at the seminar orientations held all over the Philippines.
These finalists were among the 33 semi-finalists who attended BPI Sinag Accelerate’s first bootcamp in August, where they were challenged, coached and inspired by successful social entrepreneurs like Jeannie Javelosa, Co-Founder and Director of ECHOstore and Great Women, Krie Lopez, Founder of Messy Bessy, and Rob Crisostomo, Founder of Seed Core Philippines, to name a few. Furthermore, they were also trained on topics which include the Social Business Model Canvas, Financial Management, and Investment Pitching, by mentors Priya Tachadi, Anton Mauricio, Artie Lopez respectively.
Aside from sharing practical advices on running an enterprise, they strengthened the participants’ understanding on how social impact can be brought about throughout their value chains.
“Without the social impact, you are just entrepreneurs,” said Javelosa. “Wherever you are now in your journey, don’t forget your passion,” she added.
At the second bootcamp, scheduled on October 19-21, finalists will undergo trainings on topics including value chain analysis, marketing, finance, social mission, and digitizing enterprises in order to capacitate them to scale.
The bootcamp will conclude with the finalists pitching their plans to a panel of judges in the morning of October 21, to be followed by the Awarding Ceremony in the afternoon, featuring a panel discussion with the theme “Gearing up Social Enterprises to win in an ASEAN Landscape”. Ten of the best social enterprises who have most potential to scale will be awarded with mentoring and incubation, grants, and loans.
The top 20 finalists are: Akaba Ltd. Design Co., Bag 943, Balangay’s Best, Camotes Coop, Citihub, Fresh Start Organics, Ginto Fine Chocolates, Good Food Community, Kapwa Greens, KKK Coffee, LASIWWAI, Organic Options Inc., Rehobot Association, Risque Designs, Scoop Garden Ice Cream, Shine Native Products Marketing,
Solar Solutions Inc., Southern Leyte Integrated Farmers and Fisherfolks, Sustainable Alternative Lighting Corp. (SALT), and The Churner Group, Inc.
Featuring two categories for 2016, the BPI Sinag business challenge caters to two distinct types of social enterprises – BPI Sinag Accelerate is tailor-fit for social enterprises ready to scale-up and BPI Sinag U capacitates university students with social enterprise ideas.
While BPI Sinag Accelerate is currently in the middle of its challenge cycle, the second category, BPI Sinag U, organized in partnership with the Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship, continues to invite students from 40 partner universities to sign-up for the challenge until mid of September. Regional bootcamps for BPI Sinag U will be held from October to November in Davao City, Iloilo City and Quezon City.
Visit http://sinag.bpifoundation.org/ for more information. Join the discussion and add BPI Sinag on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bpisinag and Twitter http://twitter.com/bpisinag.