Industry: SaaS B2B

B2B retail-tech platform digitizing Philippine sari-sari stores, distinct from GrowSari

Kickstart Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Globe Telecom, founded in 2012 and headquartered in Makati. It is the Philippines' largest corporate VC by track record, having participated in dozens of funding rounds across multiple countries and built a portfolio of roughly 70 local and international companies. Kickstart also advises the Ayala Corporation Technology Innovation Venture (ACTIVE) Fund. Its core differentiator is direct access to the Globe and Ayala corporate ecosystems — retail networks, logistics infrastructure, and telecom distribution — that it can plug portfolio startups into directly, rather than acting purely as a capital provider.

Wavemaker Partners is a venture capital firm founded in 2012 by Paul Santos (Singapore) and Eric Manlunas (Los Angeles), grown out of the Draper Venture Network into a bi-coastal firm spanning Southeast Asia and Southern California. Its Asian fund focuses on enterprise, deep tech, and sustainability, with the Philippines as one of its core Southeast Asian markets alongside Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Since 2012, Wavemaker has backed more than 200 companies region-wide, with over $500 million in total committed capital and exits generating over $2 billion in enterprise value. It operates three fund strategies — Wavemaker Ventures (early-stage), Wavemaker Impact (venture building for climate/decarbonization), and Wavemaker Growth (growth-stage).

Kaya Founders is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Makati, Metro Manila, founded in 2021 by operators-turned-investors Paulo Campos (former CEO, Zalora Philippines), Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng (CEO, Summit Media), and Ray Alimurung (former CEO, Lazada Philippines). The firm runs a stapled dual-fund structure -- a "Zero to One" pre-seed fund and a "One to Ten" seed-to-Series A fund -- and closed its second fund at US$25 million (about P1.47 billion) in November 2025. It has built a portfolio of 40+ startups since founding.

💰 Check size: $100K–$500K

Bootstrapped government and enterprise software provider, acquired by PLDT