PRESS RELEASE
SFPCG-PR-096-2021
YOUNG FIL-AM CEOs SHARE HOW THEIR STARTUPS GOT FUNDED
SAN FRANCISCO, September 2021 – Two young Filipino American startup founders from Silicon Valley shared their success and prior struggles in getting funding for their startup companies at an in-person/virtual business mixer at Dynamico Space on Sutter Street.
Moderated by Dynamico Space Managing Partner JR Calanoc, the event featured Queenly CEO and Co-Founder Trisha Bantigue and Plentina CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Gabayan. Queenly is a start-up for the formalwear industry that provides an online platform to buy and sell formal dresses, while Plentina is a fintech start-up that offers a buy now pay later service in emerging markets, such as the Philippines.
For both start-ups, hard work and persistence paid off despite the initial challenges. Queenly began raising funds for pre-seed in September and October 2019. Queenly reached its initial goal of raising $500,000 and gained momentum building the business until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“It was a very hopeless time for Queenly…but we quickly picked ourselves back up and we’re like ‘demand’s not gonna happen and it’s pretty tone-deaf to even push it. Let’s focus on building the largest supply of formal wear,’” Bantigue, a Political Science graduate from the University of California Berkeley, said.
“When we were just getting started we introduced our vision to hundreds of business partners and investors. Most weren’t initially interested, but over many iterations we gained more traction and refined our story to gain momentum with investors and partners.” Gabayan, a University of California Los Angeles and Stanford University alumnus, shared.
Bantigue’s Queenly is supported by venture capitalists and strategic angel investors, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Strawberry Creek Ventures and Y Combinator, as well as C-suite executives of Fitbit, Pinterest, Caviar, Mercari, Google, and Uber, among others. Its seed round funding initially closed for $2.3 million. In July 2021, it was reported that Queenly raised $6.3 million, bringing its total funding to $7.1 million to date.
Pre-seed funding for Gabayan’s Plentina was provided by Techstars, and 500 Startups Vietnam Fund, Emergent Ventures, among others. In April 2021, Plentina raised $2.2 million for its seed round. Plentina counts 7-Eleven Philippines, Smart Communications, National Book Store, and Lazada as strategic business partners as well as investors Andrew Vigneault, Goodwater Capital, Ulu Ventures, Recharge Canaan Partners Scout Fund, and Xoogler Fund, among others. Plentina has raised $3.5M to date.
Trade Commissioner May Nina Celynne Layug of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center-Silicon Valley, Consul Vanessa G. Bago-Llona, and Vice Consul Adrian Audrey L. Baccay represented the Philippine Consulate General in the business mixer.
The Consulate General has a public-private partnership with Dynamico Space that aims to develop and nurture ecosystems of Philippine and U.S. start-ups in the Silicon Valley, and expand their markets to the Philippines and vice-versa. Under the partnership, the Consulate and Dynamico Space will collaborate in areas of training, mentorship, networking, and financing.
Interested companies, organizations and entrepreneurs may visit the Dynamico Space website dynamico.space, or send an email at [email protected]. END