Makati, Philippines (27 January 2022) — The AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator (AIM-DBI), in partnership with AIM-Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (AIM-ASITE), hosted the first installment of a webinar series called The Incubator – Realities of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (THINC RITE) on 26 January 2022.
The THINC RITE series aims to showcase the unique experiences of esteemed startup founders from different industries such as education, retail, agriculture, fintech, and medicine. For its inaugural session, the theme was “Teach to Inspire: Educational Transformational Technologies and Services.”
The webinar featured Carmina Bayombong, CEO and Co-founder of education fintech startup, InvestEd, and Angela Chen, CEO and Co-founder of an online data upskilling school, Eskwelabs. Both startups were part of AIM-DBI’s THINCOHORT program in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
The event was moderated by Prof. Rafael L. Camus, MBA, ASITE’s Academic Program Director for Master of Science in Innovation and Business. He also discussed the current challenges in Philippine education during the pandemic.
As an education finance expert, Bayombong highlighted in her session that the goal of InvestEd is to provide an affordable and sustainable approach to student loans. “Our business model at InvesEd that we’re very proud of, it's really pursuing a sustainable approach in creating impact and profits,” she said.
For her part, Chen shared that as a member of a family of educators, she was inspired to build Eskwelabs to meet current needs in education. She explained, “What Eskwelabs wanted to solve was to democratize exciting opportunities in the digital economy through innovating on technical vocation education which can be designed for 21st century jobs.”
Among the 120 attendees, a few audience members asked the speakers questions on student loans, university partnerships, and other education-related concerns. The series will continue fostering conversations on 23 February 2022, where the next session will tackle the landscape of the retail industry.
The AIM-DBI, in collaboration with ASITE, produced this series to inspire the next generation of leaders to use innovation and technology in creating businesses and platforms that can create local economies, transform communities, and empower people.
For more information, visit https://www.aim.edu/dado-banatao-incubator or email aimdbi@aim.edu.