We’re excited to share this more formal announcement for the launch of Buko Ventures!

We started Buko Ventures with the goal of supporting Filipino startup founders when they are still at a very early stage - a difficult part of the startup journey anywhere in the world but especially in the Philippines where the ecosystem remains at a very nascent stage of development, even compared to other Southeast Asian countries.

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There is a particularly big gap at the earliest stage when companies are pre-revenue or even pre-launch. This is where Buko Ventures can come in and offer a lot of value to new startups. There’s 3 main ways we add value: financial capital, guidance with product design and growth strategy, and business development support.

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In terms of product and growth advice, there are a lot of insights we’ve gained that we can share with new founders that are unique to building technology and business strategies for an emerging market economy and for the Philippines in particular: things like the importance of building technology that loads quickly in low-data environments, how to keep UX design both engaging but also simple enough for newer smartphone users, and how to maximize marketing spending across local content channels.

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Regarding business development support, the Philippines economy, especially in the tech industry, often feels like a small world with business opportunities heavily dependent on warm introductions and personal connections. With years of experience in leading roles in the Philippines e-commerce industry, the Buko Ventures team can add significant value helping new founders navigate these waters and tap the right connections to accelerate their early growth.

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In our first couple months the feedback has already been very positive and we’re very excited for the future of the Philippines tech ecosystem. On the investor side we’ve heard strong support from near and far - from local investors and tech founders in Manila, to regional VCs in Singapore to American Wall Street investors - it feels like everyone really believes in the Philippines opportunity and wants to support the growth of the next generation of local startups. On the founder side, we’ve been very impressed with the quality of startups we’re talking with each week. There are huge opportunities for technology and entrepreneurship to create massive value in the Philippines economy and it’s very exciting to see so many founders tackling big ideas. We’ll be announcing our first two investments in the coming days with many more to come!

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If you’re interested in getting funding from Buko Ventures, please email us anytime at hello@bukoventures.com. If you want to learn more about our future investments, fund updates, and thoughts on the Philippines startup ecosystem,  please subscribe to our substack newsletter.

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