8 April 2022, SAN FRANCISCO – The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco together with the Philippine Trade & Investment Center- Silicon Valley (PTIC-SV) and Dynamico Space (Dynamico) recently met virtually with UPSCALE Innovation Hub to plan a collaboration with the innovation center and a select group of Philippine startups. The Department of Science and Technology and the University of the Philippines (UP) support the UPSCALE hub to accelerate technology innovation through startup incubation and industry-academe collaboration with nationwide technopreneurship capacity building programs.
The group aims to encourage up-and-coming Philippine startups to scale up and gain exposure in Silicon Valley by joining a mentorship program run by Dynamico. In January 2022, Dynamico organized virtual pitching and networking events that featured notable Philippine startups and mentor-investor-advisors in Silicon Valley.
PTIC-SV Trade Commissioner Celynne Layug, Dynamico Co-founder JR Calanoc, Dynamico Head of Mentorship Nancy Hwang, and Consul Vanessa Bago-Llona of the Consulate’s Economic Section, discussed mentorship opportunities for startups with Dr. Louie Sison, Director of the UP System Technology Transfer and Business Development Office, Vice Chair for Community Engagement of San Francisco SCORE and former president of the UP Engineering R& D Foundation, Inc. Chato Calderon, and Original Design Manufacturing expert Chicho Mantaring, Chair of UPERDFI Innovation Committee.
The mentoring program by Dynamico is part of the implementation of a public-private partnership between the Consulate and PTIC-SV, and Dynamico. In June 2021, Consul General Neil Frank R. Ferrer and Mr. Calanoc signed the “Philippines-Silicon Valley Startup Program with Dynamico Memorandum of Understanding.”
