The Independent Investor

The Independent Investor The Independent Investor is a digital newsroom covering early stage businesses in the Philippines.

Five Philippine companies - Great Deals, Growsari, Billease, Tonik Digital Bank, and PICKUP COFFEE - have been named to ...
30/04/2026

Five Philippine companies - Great Deals, Growsari, Billease, Tonik Digital Bank, and PICKUP COFFEE - have been named to the 2026 Endeavor Outliers class, an annual global recognition of the highest-performing founder-led businesses.

The cohort joins a global group of 238 high-growth companies that have raised $31.42B over the last 3 years.

(Full story in Comments section).

Endeavor Philippines, in partnership with the National Innovation Council (NIC), recently hosted the third edition of Ba...
16/04/2026

Endeavor Philippines, in partnership with the National Innovation Council (NIC), recently hosted the third edition of Balik*Bayan SF. Over 50 diaspora founders, investors, and policymakers gathered at the Philippine Consulate to discuss the massive growth opportunities within the Philippine startup ecosystem.

The gathering focused on turning diaspora talent and capital into concrete action for the Philippine economy.

(Full story in Comments section.)

Supply chain platform Baskit has closed a $4.4M Series A and secured a $3M credit line from HSBC to modernize offline su...
15/04/2026

Supply chain platform Baskit has closed a $4.4M Series A and secured a $3M credit line from HSBC to modernize offline supply chains.

While 90% of trade in the region happens offline, the "pipes" behind it are often fragmented. Baskit is changing that by using AI and embedded credit to help brands and distributors scale efficiently. They are officially expanding into the Philippines as their first market outside Indonesia.

(Full story in Comments section.)

Singapore’s Velox Networks is officially expanding into the Philippines. With the recent signing of the Konektadong Pin...
14/04/2026

Singapore’s Velox Networks is officially expanding into the Philippines. With the recent signing of the Konektadong Pinoy Act, the door has opened for modern, cloud-native telecom services.

Velox is moving in to help Philippine businesses trade "spaghetti wires" and aging copper cables for professional, cloud-based voice infrastructure.

(Full story in Comments section.)

Kaya Founders has released “The Philippine Fintech Stack,” a new report identifying the structural gaps in the country’s...
14/04/2026

Kaya Founders has released “The Philippine Fintech Stack,” a new report identifying the structural gaps in the country’s financial services. Despite record digital adoption, the report argues that the ecosystem remains "under-infrastructured," leading to high onboarding costs and fragmented data.

By building shared systems for ID and credit data, the Philippines can make banking more affordable for everyone. As report author Connor Wen puts it: “Where identity is portable, payments are cheap, and data can move securely, financial inclusion becomes economically sustainable.”

(Full story in Comments section.)

Private capital funding in the Philippines rose 34% year-on-year in 2025, bucking the downward trend seen across much of...
27/03/2026

Private capital funding in the Philippines rose 34% year-on-year in 2025, bucking the downward trend seen across much of Southeast Asia. According to the 2026 Philippine Private Capital Report by Foxmont Capital Partners, this growth signals a structural transition for the economy—moving from a model driven by consumption and labor toward one led by productivity and "capital deepening."

The report highlights that while the Philippines has strong demographics, sustaining higher growth will require an additional $40 billion to $90 billion in annual fixed-asset investment.

(Full story in Comments section).

PASIA Shared Services and Quotable AI have announced a partnership to modernize B2B procurement for SMEs and suppliers a...
23/03/2026

PASIA Shared Services and Quotable AI have announced a partnership to modernize B2B procurement for SMEs and suppliers across Asia.

By moving fragmented workflows—previously handled through spreadsheets and emails—into a single AI-powered system, the collaboration aims to reduce administrative overhead, minimize manual encoding errors, and accelerate response times for requests for quotations (RFQs).

(Full story in Comments section.)

Pulse 63 Healthcare Ventures and Specialist Direct Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Swisstec Investment Holdings, have entered i...
18/03/2026

Pulse 63 Healthcare Ventures and Specialist Direct Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Swisstec Investment Holdings, have entered into a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The partnership focuses on delivering integrated health solutions to the global "essential workforce" in industries such as maritime, aviation, and oil & gas.

The collaboration integrates Pulse 63’s HOOPScare tracking with Specialist Direct’s MIRA care management ecosystem. The initiative aims to provide medical and mental health infrastructure to workers in remote areas who represent up to 10% of the global labor market.

(Full Story in Comments section.)

A new pilot project led by MAYANI and Hillridge Technology, funded by the UK’s Frontier Tech Hub, is introducing a "Dual...
22/02/2026

A new pilot project led by MAYANI and Hillridge Technology, funded by the UK’s Frontier Tech Hub, is introducing a "Dual-Resilience" model to support 1.2 million Filipino fisherfolk. By combining guaranteed market offtake with parametric insurance, the initiative provides faster financial support and income stability for a sector where only 2% of workers currently have risk protection.

The model uses satellite data to trigger automatic payouts when extreme weather prevents fishing, bypassing the lengthy assessments of traditional insurance.

(Full story in Comments section).

As the Philippine social commerce market scales toward a projected $24.6 billion by 2028, the industry is facing a criti...
30/01/2026

As the Philippine social commerce market scales toward a projected $24.6 billion by 2028, the industry is facing a critical pivot from "influence" to "attribution." George Padin, a veteran builder and partner at Buko Ventures, has launched SaleSnap to replace standard engagement metrics with real-time sales data.

In an exclusive 1:1 with The Independent Investor, Padin discusses the shift toward a "trust-based" commerce model and how hard data is set to pop the influencer bubble.

(Full story in Comments section.)

The old way of building a business is too slow for the world of AI. Usually, founders build alone and then wait months t...
27/01/2026

The old way of building a business is too slow for the world of AI. Usually, founders build alone and then wait months to find investors. On February 12, the team at 100XVC.IO is showing a faster way: "Build-Investing." It’s a 100-day system designed to help Filipino startups solve big problems and grow at lightning speed.

We sat down with Andre Yap to talk about why the Philippines is the perfect place for this "100X" growth. From using AI to fix old industries to a new "dashboard" that keeps founders and investors on the same page, we’re breaking down how the next generation of local companies will be built.

(Full story in Comments section.)

Mober and TESDA have entered a landmark partnership to develop national training and competency standards for the Philip...
22/01/2026

Mober and TESDA have entered a landmark partnership to develop national training and competency standards for the Philippines’ electric vehicle (EV) sector.

The collaboration will provide specialized training in EV driving, maintenance, and assembly, using Mober’s commercial fleet for hands-on experience. A key focus of the initiative is bridging the gender gap in logistics by upskilling female professionals for the growing green economy.

(Full story in Comments section).

Address

Makati

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Independent Investor posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Independent Investor:

Shortcuts

Share

Category