Three groups from Baguio City made it to the Top 30 Semi-Finalists of the 5th Philippine Startup Challenge (PSC), beating more than 200 other competitors from different colleges and universities in the country.
The winning teams are Team Magis and Team Victorem, Computer Science students from Saint Louis University; and Team Y.A.N.A. (Your Assistant in Navigating Areas), Information Technology students from the University of the Cordilleras.
SEMI-FINALISTS: The Department of Information and Communications Technology Luzon Cluster I, led by Assistant Cluster Director Engr. William Rojas awarded certificates of recognition to the three groups from Baguio who advanced to the 5th Philippine Startup Challenge Semi-Finals.
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.
Team Magis’ entry is ‘Qantina’, an application that can be used by students, employees, foodies to order food from small restaurants or starting entrepreneurs. Its main focus is food discovery and creating a network where anyone can cook and make money.
Team Victorem’s entry is called ‘Qrent’, a platform for rental transactions of items and facilities where customers can opt in to use virtual credits for easy cashless payment options.
Lastly, Team Y.A.N.A’s entry is ‘Proximap’, an advertisement and navigational application with Augmented Reality, that can provide attractive and informative descriptions for near-by locations like ongoing promos of a certain establishment and courses offered by schools.
On February 19, 2019, semi-finalists showcased their improved startups during a Regional Coaching Session via a video conference before startup coaches Edel Alva, Founder & CEO of Wizher and Edwin Daryl Dy, Senior Community & Partnerships Associate of Ideaspace Foundation Inc. During the session, the panelists pitched ideas to the contestants for them to improve their startup ideas further.
“We are trying to train our students to be more of entrepreneurs than just employees. Kasi if you are just working as an employee, that benefits you and maybe your family. But if you are going to become an entrepreneur, you are able to create jobs and that’s a much wider impact on the society at large,” Mr. Carlos Ben Montes, Mentor of Team Magis and Team Victorem shared.
The 30 semi-finalists will be trimmed down to 10 during the selection of national finalists on March 2019.
The top winners will be awarded with a prototype funding totaling to 1 million pesos.
The competition is being conducted by the DICT in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Trade and Industry.
“Aside from promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in ICT among the youth, we want to ensure the continuous creation of investible ideas and startup founders,” Engr. William Rojas, OIC Assistant Director of DICT Luzon Cluster I stated.
By Diane Rivera
