The Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST PCIEERD) announced on Thursday, June 17, the 14 startups who will receive a total of P43 million in funding for research and development. 

The department received 54 proposals for their first call-out for entries for their Startup Grant Fund Program launched in December 2020. Of the 14, nine are from Luzon, three are from Mindanao, and two are from Visayas. 

They are as follows:

Agrabah – an “agriculture technology platform” that will provide automated logistics booking for farmers and fisherfolks

Mosaic – an online food and beverage procurement marketplace for food establishments and suppliers

CAWIL AI – A software system for fish catch documentation and tracing, using AI to identify fish species

Burket PH – An AI-powered buyer-supplier matching system for businesses in the Philippines

Zippee – A booking platform for truck owners and franchisees

Insights – The DeliverE platform aims to increase agriculture supply chain efficiency by 63% by shortening supply chain processes from eight steps to four

Bizkit – A business platform looking to “streamline processes and information across the entire company and enable real time data visibility of business status”

CodeChum – an online platform providing programming education for teachers and students

Infinite LMS – a analytics-powered learning management system that can be used in online learning, and for the sharing of materials and resources 

Tinkerhouse – The startup behind TinkerClubs.com, a learning platform for K-to-6 students, specifically supporting STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) workshops, projects, and learning kits. 

Lesstics – a roofing tile material that’s described to be cost-effective and sustainable, and is derived from waste single-use plastics

ROBIN (Recycle On-demand Bin) – a “reverse vendo machine” that collects PET bottles and aluminum cans for exchange of rewards points

IOL – a software-as-a-service solution that aims to help cooperatives in the Philippines to be able to comply with regulatory requirements more easily

OBX – a local disaster reporting and response system that is being designed to identify and track the location of reported emergency incidents, and speed up response dispatches to emergency needs. 

DOST said these startups were selected to align with their program theme “Jumpstarting the Economy in the New Normal” under the categories of sustainable industries, supply chain and logistics management, learning, work from home and productivity tools, content and talent development, and public service digital tools. 

Submissions for the second round of proposals from June 15 to July 15, 2021 can be done here.

The fund hopes to help the startups accomplish prototype improvement, feasibility studies, product specification development, user requirement validation, and intellectual property (IP) strengthening. – Rappler.com