QBO Innovation Hub

Villgro Philippines is a gender-smart impact incubator founded in 2017 and based in Makati, operating as the Philippine chapter of Villgro, an impact-investing organization with roots in India that runs country-specific programs across several emerging markets. Rather than writing occasional checks from a fixed fund, Villgro Philippines runs a direct incubation-and-investment portfolio that has grown to around 39 enterprises across health, education, agriculture, affordable housing, and women-and-girls-focused businesses, pairing capital with hands-on investment-readiness support. It also co-founded two pieces of investing infrastructure the local ecosystem lacked: Impact Pioneers, described by Villgro itself as the Philippines' first dedicated impact angel-investing network, built jointly with xchange; and WE Rise Community, an access-to-finance platform for women entrepreneurs. Its most recent initiative, AI4Health Asia, was launched with Canada's IDRC as the first accelerator of its kind in the region dedicated to responsible-AI health startups, focused on sexual, reproductive, and maternal health and on epidemic preparedness across South and Southeast Asia.

Plug and Play Philippines is the local National Startup Accelerator Program run under a formal, two-year partnership between Plug and Play, the Silicon Valley-founded global innovation platform active since 2006 and connected to over 35,000 startups and 500-plus corporate partners worldwide, and the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), publicly launched in Makati in April 2024. Rather than an independent Philippine-founded fund, it exists because the government sought out a global accelerator brand to run a formal local program, targeting roughly 40 startups a year across two six-month cohorts, focused on AI, cybersecurity, software development, animation, agritech, and food technology. DFNN Inc., a listed Philippine tech company, joined as a private-sector partner, testing incubating companies' products and contributing seed funding alongside DTI-referred sponsors. Participants receive mentorship and limited direct equity funding, plus access to Plug and Play's global network, reported by the firm at roughly billion in accessible capital — a genuinely different value proposition from a fund writing its own large checks, stated plainly here rather than oversold.

IdeaSpace is a Philippine startup foundation and venture arm established in 2012, backed by First Pacific, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), PLDT-Smart, Meralco, and Maynilad — companies associated with businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan. It runs founder-focused accelerator programs for early-stage Filipino tech entrepreneurs. Since 2012, IdeaSpace has supported more than 100 startups, mentored over 300 entrepreneurs, and deployed roughly PHP 180 million toward ecosystem-building. It co-founded QBO Innovation Hub in 2016 alongside J.P. Morgan, DOST, and DTI, and continues to run recurring annual accelerator cohorts (its 10th batch was unveiled in 2023). Its venture arm, IdeaSpace Ventures, is positioned within the MPIC/MVP Group ecosystem, spanning mobility, healthcare, logistics, fintech, energy, digital infrastructure, and media.