Eight Startup Teams Make It To Technology Business Plan Competition Finals

These include home hydroponics, converting feathers into fish meal, biogas from pineapple peels, increasing nutritional content of shellfish, supply & development of modern proteins, RFID reader modules for retail businesses, melt & recycle waste styropor in cooking oil and glass ceramic dental bone implant from Pinatubo volcanic ejecta & bone ash.

Contact:
Federico C Gonzalez
Dennis Posadas
Philippine Emerging Startups Open, Inc.
(Technology Business Plan Competition)
UP Ayala Technology Business Incubator
CP Garcia cor Katipunan Avenue, Diliman, QC
Telephone : 928-9344; 0917-8368896
Email: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EIGHT STARTUP TEAMS MAKE IT TO TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION FINALS

(Manila January 23) Eight technology based teams will vie for various awards during the Philippine Emerging Startups Open (PESO) Challenge 2006 finals this Sunday, January 28. PESO, the Philippines’ only business plan competition focused on innovation and technology driven ideas, will announce its 2006 winners this Sunday, January 28 4pm at the Ayala Museum in Makati, Metro Manila. Eight team finalists are left from an original field of 56 team entries, to compete for the winning prizes this Sunday.

The eight teams who made it to the PESO finals are:

Aqua Veggies: A team working on an easy to assemble home garden using hydroponics. Their SNAPkit system allows amateur gardeners to grow plans and vegetables in limited spaces, and is also positioned as a “wellness” product.

Feathers2Fish: A team that has a proprietary process for converting waste feathers into a high protein content fish meal. Most feather based meals have a high protein content, but the protein is not easily digested by animals to convert to meat. This team has a proprietary plant based enzyme that can “melt” feathers, producing a protein meal that is cheaper than imported fish meal.

Gr8Eye: A team working on a biogas generation process using dried pineapple peelings. The biogas will be used as an alternative cooking energy source, and recycle 1.4 million tons of pineapple plantation waste in the Philippines.

Micronutrient: Shellfish Biotechnology is a method of fortifying live invertebrate mollusks with amino acids, vitamins and trace elements from cultured algae to increase the nutritional content of edible shellfishes. This innovation is aimed at addressing the problem of micronutrient deficiency worldwide by producing capsules, food additives and other products for human wellness.

Proviera: The vision of the Proviera team is to be the leader in the supply and development of modern proteins. Their initial plan is to establish a Single Celled Protein (SCP) production facility in the Philippines, used as an input for the animal feed industry.

RFID: A team composed primarily of engineers working on a product to design RFID reader modules using an advanced architecture and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, a wireless form of tag meant to replace barcodes for retail businesses.

Styropor: A team whose aim is to melt waste styropor in used cooking oil and form products from recycled styropor plastic.

Pinatubo Bone Recycling: a team that has a patented glass ceramic dental bone implant made up mainly of Pinatubo volcanic ejecta and bone ash. It is meant as a substitute for titanium metal dental implants commonly used today.

The 2006 PESO competition has some interesting statistics. 56 plans were received from ten universities across the country, as well as independent teams. Out of the 56 plans submitted, 31 plans were accepted representing 30 faculty members, 35 professionals and 94 students. Four (4) team members held PhD’s, while 18 held MS degrees, with the rest having BS degrees. The 31 plans ranged from Information Technology/Telecom (9); Engineering and Process (4); Services (2); Agriculture (6 plans); Life and Bio-sciences (7); and Energy/Environment (3).

PESO is now in its second year. Originally started by Filipinos at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the contest is now run by volunteers based here in the Philippines. Unlike other business plan competitions, PESO offers “post-competition” support for winners of previous years; this year, two 2005 finalists (Schyro Water and Bio Enterprise Pilipinas, Inc.) are being mentored by the UP Ayala Technology Business Incubator, PESO’s partner and sponsor through the Ayala Foundation, Inc.

Sponsors of the 2006 competition include: Ayala Foundation; MIT Public Service Center; ICCP Venture Partners; Aureos Capital; WTP Capital; iP Ventures; Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship; Razor Web Consulting; Brain Gain Network; Hybridigm Consulting; Media G8Way; and BusinessWorld.

PESO Challenge 2006 website is at http://www.pesochallenge.org