Sanitary Care Products Asia (SCPA) has announced not just one but three winners of its social accelerator program dubbed as the Human Investment X Impact Grant for Entrepreneurship and Empowerment (HIIGENE) Program.
The HIIGENE Program was launched by the homegrown hygiene products manufacturer in March, coinciding then with the company’s celebration of its 25th anniversary. The program—a joint initiative with the Asian Institute of Management – Dado Banatao Incubator (AIM-DBI)—aims to empower a new breed of Filipino business leaders.
Startups Payruler, Eskwelabs, and Mayani bested two other shortlisted startups in the final stretch of the selection. The HIIGENE Program received 11 startup applications upon launch—each presented a pitch with the goal to be among the five shortlisted finalists.
SCPA surprised everyone when it announced three winners in an online event it mounted on June 24, 2021. The company said the selection committee had a hard time deciding which finalist to declare as the main winner, thus, three champions were set instead of one.
Each of the three winners is entitled to an equity-free cash grant of up to ₱500,000. They are also given slots to a 6-session mentorship program that will be held from July to September and to be facilitated by SCPA executives themselves. The winners will be monitored by the AIM-DBI milestone monitoring program, which will collate the updates, progress reports, and list of achievements for presentation to the public in October, in an event that will culminate SCPA’s 25th year celebration.
Here are winners of SCPA’s first HIIGENE Program:
Payruler
Cebu City-based Payruler is operating with the goal of equipping HR departments with the right solutions to make operations more efficient and effective. The company offers to automate applicable processes so a business’ HR department can focus on managing its workforce.
Payruler offers monthly subscription packages that SMEs can afford and on-premise installations for bigger corporations. To date, the 37-member team empowers more than 100 clients in 15 out of 18 local industries.
Since its establishment in 2016, Payruler has been relying solely on revenue to fund its operations. This is why the grant will be of valuable help to fund not just its operational requirements but also a planned program that will facilitate further training for its staff.
Eskwelabs
Manila-based online data upskilling school Eskwelabs has always been aiming to drive social mobility in the future of employment through data skills education. Since its establishment in 2019, the startup has taught over 4,000 learners—90% of which have already found placements within 90 days after completing programs and have increased their salaries by up to 1.5 times.
Eskwelabs works with clients like business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, which need to upskill their contact center agents towards the more challenging and more in-demand data-enabled roles.
The grant from the HIIGENE Program will be used to further strengthen Eskwelabs’ people management systems and support its mission to democratize access to career opportunities in the future. Such initiative will also boost its initiatives to help professionals who have been affected by the ongoing pandemic.
Mayani
Dubbed as the country’s fastest-growing, impact-driven, agri-technology platform to date, Mayani connects rural farmers and consumers, both retail and commercial. The goal is to help more than 10 million smallholder farmers lead better lives through the use of current technology.
Since May 2019, the business has connected more than 12,000 smallholder farmers to the platform. At the same time, it has served more than 10,000 B2C customers and has been powering the agri-supply chains of the country’s leading B2B brands like WalterMart, UCC Group, Shell, Healthy Options, Ayala Foundation, Amici, and Tanging Yaman Foundation among others.
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