SCPA’s HIIGENE Program awards grants to local startups
Giving back on its 25th year, hygiene products company Sanitary Care Products Asia (SCPA) invests in local startups to champion decades of people-first philosophy. Together with the Asian Institute of Management-Dado Banatao Incubator (AIM-DBI), they launched the social accelerator program called the Human Investment x Impact Grant for Entrepreneurship and Empowerment or the HIIGENE Program.
The HIIGENE Program blazed the trail as the very first collaboration of a local company and a business incubator. It was crafted according to the Sio family’s initiative to support local entrepreneurs with human investment infused in its business gene. Through this, SCPA aspires to help build an industry of people-first enterprises, boost the economy, and improve the lives of many through innovation.
Qualified startups from the AIM-DBI pool went through a rigorous selection process led by SCPA executives, members of the academe, and the corporate industry. 11 startups presented their innovations, purpose, and their future plans through a pitch presentation before they were trimmed down into 5 finalists.
The selection committee admitted that choosing from these 5 was such a challenging task for they have all proven themselves worthy of the grant. That is why during the awards ceremony last June 24, not just one but three of the startups emerged victorious. SCPA Chairman and Founder Renato Sio together with SCPA President and CEO Ven Sio finally presented the three winners, namely Payruler, a human resource management startup, Eskwelabs, an edu-tech startup for data skills education, and Mayani, an agri-technology platform.
PAYRULER
Payruler is a comprehensive and customizable Human Resource Management System built for Philippine businesses. It is an end-to-end solution that automates, integrates, and streamlines HR processes that cover the entire employee lifecycle from hiring to retiring.
Originally, Payruler is made up of six (6) major modules that enable process automation in recruitment,employee information management, timekeeping, payroll, reports generation, and employee self-service. In keeping with the times brought by COVID-19, it has been necessary to be able to not just manage, but also upskill in different working environments; thus, Payruler has integrated a seventh major module fully dedicated to learning management.
Ultimately, the anchoring principle of Payruler is that the Human Resource (HR) team is a key business driver and important decision maker, rather than just a policy enforcer. Payruler’s goal is to take care of the things that can be automated so that HR can focus on what they do best – take care of the company’s people as their key input towards greater success. We believe that our client’s success is also our win since growth starts within. By keeping our clients in mind, we create an inward impact with our working product that leads to an outward impact through the HR that we empower.
ESKWELABS
The future of work has arrived almost overnight and the opportunity gap will continue to widen between those who use technologies and those who compete against them. The amount of data in the digital economy is exploding so for millions of BPO workers, freelancers and the like to move up the value chain of work, data upskilling can unlock digital work opportunities and help workers become more resilient in a future of technology, data, and machines.
We deliver affordable outcome-focused online education for workers and teams. Founded in 2019, Eskwelabs is a Manila-based online data upskilling school with the mission of driving social mobility in the future of work through data skills education. Eskwelabs has reached 4,000 learners of which 10% graduated from paid programs. 90% of these learners have found placement within 90 days where they experienced a salary increase of 1.5 times. 60% of our learners are women and 80% of come from a non-STEM background. We also work with companies like BPOs to Upskill call center agents towards data-enabled roles.
Eskwelabs’s pedagogy has been certified by the Education Alliance of Finland and is awarded by the Asian Development Bank as a winning solution for “Digital Skills for Today’s Workforce”. Our Founders are also recently recognized as Forbes 30-Under-30 social entrepreneurs. As a team committed to improving the state of the world, Eskwelabs is now working towards embracing a larger learner population through innovative delivery models to make data skills education even more accessible. One of our current efforts focus on delivering targeted data upskilling for women, who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and are under-represented in STEM-related jobs. The support of the HIIGENE program will help us strength our people management systems and support our mission of democratizing access to career. opportunities in the future of work.
MAYANI
MAYANI is currently the Philippines’ fastest-growing, impact-driven, agri-technology platform that connects rural smallholder farmers and consumers, both retail and commercial. They envision a Philippines where over 10 million smallholder farmers lead better lives through technology.
Founded in May 15, 2019 (Feast of San Isidro Labrador, Patron Saint for Farmers), MAYANI now has over 12,000 smallholder farmers connected to their platform, serves over 10,000 B2C customers, and powers the agri-supply chain of the Philippines’ leading B2B brands such as Shell, WalterMart, Healthy Options, Ayala Foundation, PT Mayora Indah (maker of Kopiko), UCC Group, Cara Mia, Amici, BTS Army, Tanging Yaman Foundation, and Rotaract Manila, among others.
Equity-free cash grants of up to Php 500,000 each are waiting for the three startups to help expand and sustain their companies. Not only that, but from July to September, they will participate in a 6-session mentorship program with the SCPA executives themselves. The HIIGENE curriculum features enrichment topics based on real-life experiences such as establishing the business purpose, strategies, operations, finance, sales and marketing, and people management to inspire their organization’s practices. To top it all off, SCPA decided to provide mentorship even to those who didn’t make the cut, so everybody wins.
Updates on the progress and achievements of the 3 winners will be monitored by the AIM-DBI milestone monitoring program. These will be presented during the culminating SCPA’s silver anniversary celebration, which will take place in October.
