Filipino clean energy startups need sustainable, infrastructure support — report

MANILA, Philippines — An international nonprofit organization on clean energy on Wednesday, September 18, reported that the Philippines faces sustainable financial and infrastructure gaps to support clean energy and climate startups. 

Despite a six-fold increase in climate-focused ventures in the country, from 15 in 2020 to 91 firms in 2024, the New Energy Nexus (NEX) identified that local startups still struggle to access available government resources and funding due to a lack of awareness and unstreamlined bureaucratic processes. 

“The Filipino clean energy innovation ecosystem has shown huge progress and promise in the past years, but the nascent space runs the risk of stalling because of lack of access to networks, funding, testing facilities, and skills training,” NEX country director Brenda Valerio said.

What they found. The org has only identified seven research laboratories and nine universities nationwide capable of providing testing facilities and programs related to energy.

NEX also found that there are 29 training institutions with the capacity to help equip clean energy startups and 127 projects already in the pipeline. 

According to the report, nearly half of the clean energy and climate startups focus on renewable energy generation, while other ventures concentrate on sustainable cooling, transport, waste management and circular economy.

Specific to energy, some startups aim to strengthen the country’s access to, management of and storage of energy, as well as improve energy efficiency.

Entrepreneurs in provinces are also only starting to “carve up space,” with 14.5% of clean energy startups located in Northern Mindanao and 16.5% in CALABARZON. Meanwhile, more than a third of green businesses can largely be found in Metro Manila. 

Need for sectoral collaboration

Awareness of government funding and resources is not the only concern. The involvement of the private sector is also lacking, NEX said. 

Only 13% of the USD 1.3 million (P72.47 million) raised by 18 green businesses comes from the private sector and investments. The majority of the funding has been sourced from grants and competitions.

The nonprofit added that some startups also lack the necessary infrastructure, experience, or systems to effectively manage large amounts of funding if they are granted capital to sustain their operations.

“In my observation, most startups are not yet ready for the type of funding that's currently available. … It's crucial that we provide support at every stage of a startup's journey, not just when they're ready for significant investment,” Rachel Santiago-Sacro of venture fund Clime Capital said.

To speed up the country’s adoption and deployment of clean energy innovations, Valerio emphasized that government agencies, think tanks, non-governmental organizations and the private sector need to collaborate.

“Local entrepreneurs are best placed to understand how to deploy solutions in their communities and transition our economy more equitably to clean energy. It really does take a village to build and deploy these solutions,” she added.

NEX Philippines has provided support for 85 of the 91 clean energy and climate startups in the country since 2019.