Team Victorem, a group of Computer Science students from Saint Louis University in Baguio City snared the champion’s trophy during the 5th Philippine Startup Challenge (PSC) National Finals at Iloilo City on April 5, 2019.
Their startup concept called Qrent overthrew 250 other startup entries pitched for the nationwide competition this year. Qrent is a web-based and mobile platform designed for safe, secured, and convenient rental transactions between renters and item owners. It also gives an opportunity for those who have unused items at home to earn extra by having those items rented. Members of the team are Rammaria Paula Advincula, Joshua John Bantayan and Kristen Kyra Villegas. They were mentored by Mr. Carlos Ben Montes.
“The startup idea came from our friend who wanted to buy new lens but did not have enough money to buy one. He then thought of the idea of renting the lens rather than buying it. This led to the idea of making a platform for rental transactions,” Rammaria Paula Advincula, one of the members of the team shared.
Advincula further explained that they will be earning from 5%-10% commission fee from each transaction, paid ads and selling or virtual credit. For security features, they plan to apply item insurance policies, ID verification, deposit, and usage of peer reviews to provide owners a platform to assess the condition of items used. Delivery options for rented items are through pickup, meet up, drop-off points and delivery via courier.
“Your idea is executable and straightforward,” Ms. Famida Alonto, one of the judges applauded. The champions won Php 200,000.00 prototype funding from the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Researc and Development (DOST-PCIEERD), Seed for the Future two weeks all-expense-paid study program in China from Huawei Philippines, inclusion to the 2019 National Ideaspace Bootcamp from Ideaspace Philippines and cellphones from Huawei.
Meanwhile, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th runner up awards were received be Team Rentalbee from Far Eastern University, Team Calm from Davao Central College, Team RTK Incorporated from Western Mindanao State University, and Team Technovators from the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines.
These teams were also awarded a prototype funding of Php 200, 000.00 per team from DOSTPCIEERD. The PSC is a startup competition which aims to encourage and inspire college students to create innovative and relevant Information and Communications Technology (ICT) service solutions to the most pressing problems in the society.
The competition is being conducted by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in partnership with the Department of Science and the Technology and Department of Trade and Industry.
By: Diane Rivera
