Logistics and e-commerce innovator Bjorn Pardo co-founded independent venture studio AHG Lab and drives the company into ‘proptech+’—a space that serves the Philippine property technology market and adjacent industries including hospitality, education, procurement, logistics and beyond.
Pardo brings his experience in founding startups independently, and his more recent experience in corporate venture building, to lead AHG Lab in building companies that deliver innovative tech-powered applications and solutions.
He mobilizes the venture builder’s synergistic team of seasoned entrepreneurs, creatives, and investors that together power over 10 tech-enabled startups, with more ventures in the works. He is working alongside the original investors of AHG who have established their own portfolios in the traditional real estate industry and in the more cutting-edge property technology field.
Being the innovator that he is, Pardo wants to push the envelope beyond the bounds of PropTech solutions. This is why he is leading AHG Lab in their move toward PropTech+—expanding the use of property technology to address not just the needs of real estate stakeholders, but surrounding communities as well.
“The original thought was strictly PropTech, focusing primarily on property owners and tenants. But as we dived deeper into the solutions, it became clear that there’s so much need to address the communities around it. We saw opportunities to serve adjacent markets like professionals in co-working spaces, students in co-living arrangements, tourists, and so on. That’s when we added ‘plus’ in ‘PropTech+’,” said Pardo.
“Going into PropTech+ is really looking at who we can serve from a different perspective, from property owners, tenants and beyond. It’s thinking about what solutions we can offer within that community which opens doors to infinite possibilities of ventures that we can build,” he said.
Pardo previously co-founded the first e-commerce venture studio in the Philippines, QuadX, in 2013. He also joined Unionbank’s venture builder UBX in 2018, where he ideated, built and launched two ventures and grew them to serve over 100,000 businesses as managing director.
Pardo’s expertise in building and scaling startups was solidified earlier on in 2004 when he founded Xend, the express shipping and courier service that revolutionized e-commerce logistics in Southeast Asia.
“I’ve been building ventures my entire professional life, and it’s always fulfilling to learn new things with every new industry I go into. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to make an impact and do what I know best, here at AHG Lab,” said Pardo of his experience in a variety of industries including logistics, e-commerce, health, fintech and now PropTech+.
