Innovators, Investors gather at IGNITE 2023 to shape the future of #AInnovation

As the new age of artificial intelligence gains a foothold over Philippine industries, the country’s largest tech conference brought together investors and innovators on a thrilling journey to ignite the future of #AInnovation.

On October 12-13, the 7th “IGNITE 2023” conference took place at the Fairmont Hotel, Makati. This two-day event was sponsored by TechShake, dentsu X, and Brainsparks, with the support of JETRO, X-Hub Tokyo, Shell LiveWIRE, Digiteer, Mynavi, F (dev), 917 Ventures, Penbrothers, and Sprout Solutions. It served as a platform for startups, investors, and corporations from different parts of the country and across the ASEAN region to share their cutting-edge AI ideas and innovations to further improve our lives.

The first day of the IGNITE 2023 conference was divided into 10 sessions in the morning. The first segment started with Mr. Kotaro Adachi, CEO and Co-founder of TechShake, welcoming everyone to the biggest AI-based event in town. This was followed by the opening remarks of Mr. Kazuo Nakamura, Executive Director of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), as he discussed the advantages of AI in different facets and how it has helped achieve significant breakthroughs in agriculture, water resources, and structuring.

For the keynote speeches, Serge Bernal Jr., the VP of Corporate Relations at Shell Pilipinas Corporation, shared the AI tech products and services that are available to the businesses of their Shell LiveWIRE Alumni and current tech startups. The second keynote speaker, Mr. Anis Uzzaman, the founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures, then presented on AI investment trends. Simultaneously, Mr. Gerando Bonganay of IBM Technology explained IBM’s AI strategy, capable of performing digital labor and cybersecurity models. In the keynote panel, Ee Ling Lim, Executive Director of 500 Global, introduced the esteemed panelists: Jeffrey Seah (General Partner, MSW Ventures), Hanno Stegmann (Managing Director & Partner, BCG X), Martin Cu (Partner Southeast Asia, 500 Global).

This was followed by Keynote Speaker Vijay Tirathrai, Managing Director of Techstars, and his presentation on “Fundraising: Have VCs been Fair in Valuing Startups.”

In the afternoon, the Shell LiveWire event was divided into 19 different segments. The opening remarks were delivered by Mr. Bernal, followed by Undersecretary of DTI Rafaelita Aldaba.

There were three tech startup pitches for the Shell LiveWire, and these were as follows: Vincent Mendoza (Founder & CEO, Farmvocacy Inc.), Eleanor Olegario (Founder, Lithos Manufacturing), Jaggy Gangat (CEO, Lycan Motorcycles).

After that, there were community batch awarding, sponsors A-list interviews and awarding, and the announcement of the winner before the closing remarks. The Shell LiveWire Champion was none other than Vincent Mendoza of Farmvocacy, who received a prize of PHP 1 Million in funding partnership with Shell Philippines.

For the second day of IGNITE 2023, the most-awaited Wildfire X Startup World Cup regional competition in the Philippines happened.

There were Top 10 startup finalists and these were:

1. Bizkit Technologies
2. Cerebro
3. Farmvocacy
4. Kamilas4am
5. Lycan Motorcycles
6. REVAstaff
7. Sharly
8. SolX Technologies, Inc.
9. TANGGapp
10. Wika

The winner of this event was the startup SolX, a digital energy solutions platform in the country that helps local businesses make cost-effective decisions with their energy consumption. Solx Technologies Inc. will represent the Philippines in the SWC Global Competition in Silicon Valley.