The National Development Company (NDC), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) tasked to support companies and industries, and Quest Ventures, a top venture capital (VC) firm in Asia, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to embark as knowledge partners to drive startup innovation and investments in the country.
NDC general manager Anton Mauricio and Quest Venture head of environment, social and governance April Ong-Vaño signed the agreement in Manila on Monday.
“We are excited to join forces with Quest Ventures in our pursuit of innovation and startup industry growth. With their significant footprint in Singapore and across Asia, Quest Ventures brings valuable cross-border insights, best practices and extensive network that aligns with our key objectives in enhancing the local venture capital ecosystem and promoting sustainable investments,” Mauricio said.
The collaboration aims to leverage their combined expertise and resources as well as to strengthen linkages between government and private sector.
NDC will leverage its newly-established Philippine Innovation Hub (iHub) for this collaboration. iHub is also the headquarters of the Startup Venture Fund (SVF), the Philippine E-commerce Platform (PEP) and the Ph AI Research Center (PAIR).
Ong-Vaño said the regional venture capital firm was encouraged to partner with NDC to transform the Philippines startup and innovation ecosystem by improving access to venture capital.
“We look forward to bringing our crowd favorites such as venture capital courses and accelerators to important hubs in The Philippines. We also look forward to implementing Philippine-specific programs to address new sectors of opportunities such as sustainability,” she said.
Quest Ventures portfolio companies include industry leaders such as 99.co, Carousell, Carro, Glife, Hepmil/ PGAG, Oddle, Shopback, VulcanPost, Xfers, and Kraver’s Canteen. Its enterprise innovation clients include Applied Materials, Coca-Cola, HP, Nissan, and Tencent.
Quest Venture is known for uplifting communities in emerging economies in Southeast Asia and Central Asia, through the infusion of capital and technology. It received recognition as VC of the Year in 2022.
NDC also signed similar MOUs with the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Embiggen Group and Bizbaz.