MANILA, Philippines — Philippine startups raised over $1 billion for funding in 2021, a 179 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Philippine Venture Capital Report 2022.
The report, a joint effort by venture capital fund Foxmont Capital Partners (FCP) and global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group, showed the total capital raised by Philippine startups or innovation-driven companies involved in technology reached $1.03 billion in 2021, higher than the $369 million in 2020.
Last year’s total is also higher than the $152 million raised by the Philippine startup ecosystem in 2019.
“2021 has been a watershed year for the Philippine startup ecosystem, with total deals hitting a record of 92,” FCP said.
Last year’s deals in the Philippine startup ecosystem went up 41.5 percent compared to the 65 closed in 2020.
Over the last three years, FCP said deal activity has been increasing and averaging 15.33 deals per quarter.
By sector, fintech startups continued to drive the majority of deal activities in the country last year.
In particular, fintech represented 77 percent and 65.77 percent of deal value and volume, respectively.
This was seen as the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of digital financial services.
“While the dominance of fintech persists, other sectors such as e-commerce and media and entertainment have also remained active and amassed substantial growth, indicating that companies in these sectors are gaining traction and attracting the attention of investors, both locally and regionally,” FCP said.
Last year, media and entertainment had a 13.45 percent share in deal value, while e-commerce accounted for 8.51 percent.
For this year, FCP said Philippine startups have seen a strong start, with funds raised reaching over $310 million in the January to February period and outpacing the same period in the last two years.
FCP said this is a clear sign of continuous growth for the Philippine startup ecosystem.
“The country’s growing young tech-savvy population, driven entrepreneurs, English-proficient talent pool, and emerging sources of early stage funding have created a fertile environment for startups to thrive and continue to prove that the Philippines is an attractive destination for venture capital,” FCP said.
Established in 2018, FCP is focused on investing in Philippine scalable startups in rapidly digitizing areas such as e-commerce, fintech and health tech, among others.
So far, FCP has announced over 26 investments. Recent additions to its portfolio include social commerce platform SariSuki, export enabler 1Export and digital ledger and point-of-sales app Peddlr.