MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Power Corp. has set up a venture studio focused on building startups in the energy sector.
AboitizPower chief corporate services officer Carlos Aboitiz said during a visit to The STAR yesterday that the company has started a venture studio called 1882 Energy Ventures, which will help build startups focused on the energy sector.
“This studio builds new startups in energy specifically to try to make a more decentralized energy system,” he said.
The venture studio was named 1882 as this was the year that Thomas Edison’s company flipped the switch for the first centralized energy system in New York City.
“He designed and invented the centralized energy system. And what we’re trying to say is, part of the evolution of the system is to decentralize it, to actually reinvent his system. So it’s a nod to him and it’s a nod to that invention back then,” Aboitiz said.
He said the venture studio, which started last year, will build startups in the areas of decentralized energy resources, electric mobility as well as energy internet of things and data.
“We have two builds so far,” he said. “We will be launching one of the builds in the market this year.”
Among the challenges in building startups is finding the right talent.
“That’s our biggest problem, to find the right people to help us build,” Aboitiz said.
Other challenges to building startups are the difficult process in setting up a company, as well as finding funding sources.
Aboitiz said the Philippines can learn from its neighbor Indonesia, which has built a startup ecosystem, which according to a report on Asialink, has the second largest number of unicorns in ASEAN after Singapore, totaling 15, as of 2022.
“We have to raise public awareness that we need to invest in the ecosystem,” Aboitiz said.
He said there is a need to create an environment that will help develop startups.
“You have to create a system or an environment that encourages it, that funds you, that gives you security blankets, that gives you privileges, that teaches you, that gives you resources and tools,” Aboitiz said.