WE Rise x SheDisrupts Philippines 2022

Presented by Villgro Philippines and Creatella Impact

Register to the demo day on 27 May, 2pm PHT to hear live pitches of finalists

WE Rise x SheDisrupts Philippines 2022 is a Venture Competition, Mentorship and Pre-Acceleration Program for women led early stage social impact startups. The program is fully remote and offers tools, resources and opportunities to help women entrepreneurs to get access to capital to grow their businesses and advance the socio-economic progress and empowerment of women in the Philippines.

Are you a disruptive entrepreneur, with a mission to drive change?

Don’t miss the chance to apply!

Discover the cohort

Eligibility criteria

Competition & Mentoring

ROUND 1

ROUND 2

100% online
30+ startups invited in Round 1 and 2
30+ mentors
20+ judges
1 round of 3 mentorship sessions
1 pitching round to 2 judges

Pre-Acceleration

100% online
15+ startups selected
3 weeks
Lectures
Hands-on workshops
Mentoring

Demo Day

100% online
15+ startups
Pitch to investors
Networking

Pre-Acceleration programme

Why Apply

Apply

Prizes and Perks

10,000 USD Grand Prize

Equity-free seed capital of 10,000 USD

$20,000 subsidy from Creatella

Subsidy of 50% of tech venture building cost, up to 20,000USD, for up to 3 startups

Entry to Techstars

Entry interview to Techstars Startup Accelerator (global)

AWS credits from AWS EdStart

Credits to any start-up that qualifies for AWS EdStart program.

$50,000 worth of Segment credits

Get up to $50,000 in credits across Segments platform with over 200 marketing, analytics, and data warehousing tools

$10,000 worth of Freshworks credits

Get $10,000 worth credits and create customers-for-life using the right tools, mentorship and resources

Fee-free processing with Stripe

Get fee-free processing with Stripe.

Design workshop by Styliff Tech

2 hours of Strategic UX Design mentoring by senior app creators and entrepreneurs

Up to 82,000 USD savings with HubSpot

Up to 82,000 USD savings in the first 12 months, up to 90% off for qualifying startups.

Software donation and Webinar

Webinar on the power of cloud technology and Oracle NetSuite Social Impact software. Software donation for qualifying social enterprises

Timeline

Application deadline

Submit your pitch and application online

10 April 2022, 23:59 PHT

Selection

Top 30+ teams are selected for 1st round

13 April 2022

Round 1: Mentoring

The 30+ selected teams participate in 2 mentoring and pitch training sessions with industry experts

18 - 22 April 2022

Round 2: Judging

All 30+ teams pitch 1-on-1 in front of judges, VCs and angel investors

18 - 29 April 2022

Pre-acceleration

Top 15+ teams begin the 3-weeks pre-acceleration program

9 - 26 May 2022

Demo Day

All 15+ pre-accelerated startups pitch at our online Demo Day in front of investors and other stakeholders

27 May 2022

Finish

Presented by

Villgro Philippines is a women-owned and led, gender-smart incubator that funds, mentors, and supports impact enterprises building innovative solutions to address the most urgent social and environmental challenges. It now has a direct portfolio of 39 enterprises across health, education, agriculture, affordable housing, and women and girls in Southeast Asia. To bridge the gender financing gap in the ecosystem, Villgro co-founded Impact Pioneers, the first impact angel investment platform in the Philippines, and WE Rise Community, an access-to-finance platform for women entrepreneurs to connect to capital, content, and a community of peers and ecosystem enablers. Villgro’s programs have won multiple awards from UN Women Empowerment Principles in 2020 (Youth Gender Champion), and 2021 (SME Champion for Gender Responsive Marketplace).
Website: www.villgrophilippines.org

For early stage social enterprises in emerging markets, committed to providing entrepreneurial innovative solutions for the achievement of SDGs by generating measurable social and environmental impact, Creatella Impact provides venture building, technology execution, mentorship, advisory support, other acceleration programmes, impact investment including financial capital, deal syndication, blended funding and diverse financial instruments.
As a Tech for Good charitable organization, Creatella Impact empowers women social entrepreneurs to leverage the ICT-driven innovations and digital transformations to become more efficient and competitive, seize new opportunities for business and create social and environmental impact in line with the SDGs.
Website: creatella.org

Our Partners

Main Acceleration Partner

Partners

Prize Partners

Investment Partners

Frequently Asked Question

What are the rules of participation?

In brief, your startup must be women-led and an early-stage technology startup (prototype stage to Series A) with less than US$ 300,000 in yearly revenues. Your focal market must be the Philippines with an impact on at least of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).

Please refer to the Rules of Participation for the exhaustive list of eligibility criteria.

Do I have to be incorporated to apply?

No, but you should have clear development project and goals. In the case that a non-incorporated project wins the competition, the funds will be transferred or prizes will be given once the company is incorporated.

What are the evaluation criteria?

The team, problem identification and value proposition, innovation, timing, market opportunity, execution plan and go-to-market strategy, business model viability, investability and pitch quality.

What language will the event be conducted in?

The application, the online pitch and talkings with advisors and investors will be held in English. The pre-acceleration will be conducted in English.

How much time will I have to spend on the competition?

It will take about 15 to 30 minutes to apply. If you are selected for the mentoring round, you will participate in two 30 to 60 minutes calls with your assigned mentor. If you are then selected as a finalist, you will have the opportunity to pitch to a judge (investor) for 30 minutes. If you are among the 15+ selected to join the pre-acceleration program, the pre-acceleration will last for 3 weeks, 4 hours per day. We also recommend to take some time and fully prepare for each round in order to get the most out of the competition, but the necessary time will vary from team to team.

Does my venture need to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

Yes, all participating startups have to contribute directly at least to one of the SDGs

What are the rules for the pitching?

In the mentoring phase (round 1), you will have 2 to 3 calls of 60 minutes with one mentor each, with 10 minutes to pitch, as well as 40 minutes of feedback and mentoring. The mentors will be given a one-pager summary of your startup, as well as your pitch deck. For the judging phase (round 2) you will have 10 minutes to pitch and 20 minutes of Q&A.

If you are selected into the pre-acceleration program, you will also join the demo day, during which you will have 2 to 4 minutes to pitch in front of investors.

How many winners will be chosen?

Round 1 is a non-elimination round. All startups will automatically progress to round 2. In round 2, 15+ winners will be selected and will then move to the pre-acceleration program.

What if I’m not in the same city as the mentors/judges?

That’s ok! All of the pitching, mentoring, and judging will take place entirely online. Our team will ensure you are paired with a judge in a similar time zone so each round is convenient for both parties.

Who will be evaluating my application?

Our team will be going through each application and select the best 30+ to participate in the mentoring program. Considerations will include completeness of application, fit within category, impact, team, market, product.

Is there an application fee?

No.

Are there any costs associated with the competition?

No, neither money nor equity are requested for participation.

Who can participate in all the rounds?

Only the startup founders/co-founders can participate in each round. We suggest that the same persons participate in every round.

Will Covid-19 related restrictions affect my participation?

Not at all! All sessions are online.

What is the pre-acceleration program and who will get access to it?

The top 15+ startups will be invited to the pre-acceleration round. It is a 3-weeks workshop led by industry experts/facilitators specially designed to support and provide opportunities for women founders to grow their team, product, and startup align with the SDGs.

What are the WEPs? Is it required to be a signatory to be eligible?

The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) are a set of Principles offering guidance to business on how to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.

It is not mandatory to be signatory to be eligible fort the competition and pre-acceleration, however we highly encourage you to become a signatory at https://www.weps.org/

Apply

WE Rise x SheDisrupts Philippines 2022 is a programme combining mentorship, venture competition, pre-acceleration and demo day for social and environmental enterprises in pursuit of achieving maximum impact for women economic empowerment in the Philippines.