Following the launch of Sanitary Care Products Asia (SCPA)’s HIIGENE last 18 March 2021, three grant winners have now been announced: Filipino local startups Payruler, Mayani, and Eskwelabs!
The HIIGENE Grant
HIIGENE, or the Human Investment x Impact Grant for Entrepreneurship and Empowerment, kicked off last March by SCPA together with the Asian Institute of Management – Dado Banatao Incubator (AIM-DBI). It aims to search for companies with a “people-centered” philosophy. SCPA is doing this to give back on their 25th year, and HIIGENE is the very first collaboration of a local company and a business incubator.
Eleven startups presented their innovations, purpose, and their future plans through a pitch presentation before they were trimmed down into five finalists. Of these five, the three mentioned companies emerged as the awardees last 24 June 2021.
Equity-free cash grants of up to PHP 500,000 are waiting for each of the three startups to help expand and sustain their companies. As well, they will be participating in a six-session mentorship program from July to September with the SCPA executives.
Presenting the Grant Awardees
Below are the brief profiles of each of the three HIIGENE grant awardees.
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.
They will use the grant to fund Payruler “SPARK” (Synergistic Practice Accelerating Readiness and Knowledge) — a program which is aimed at jumpstarting a learning culture in Payruler’s employees. The SPARK program aims to elevate the entire team by providing certified training and skills needed by the current and future leaders within the company via trusted global providers.
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. They currently have over 12,000 smallholder farmers connected to their platform, serving over 10,000 B2C customers, and powers the agri-supply chain of the Philippines’ leading B2B brands.
As a “Win with People” startup, MAYANI has broken the “grass ceiling” by rapidly expanding its workforce while mainstreaming affirmative action and inclusive employment. Through its “SUPER” Program (Supplemental Employment and Reintegration), it has employed over 227 farmers, youths-at-risk, differently-abled individuals, and housewives (recruitment) while achieving 18% diversity rate at a 1:1 Like for like Pay Equality Ratio (representation & benefits).
Eskwelabs
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. They are working towards embracing a larger learner population through innovative delivery models to make data skills education even more accessible. One of their current efforts focuses on delivering targeted data upskilling for women, disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and are under-represented in STEM-related jobs.
The support of the HIIGENE program will help them strengthen their people management systems and support their mission of democratizing access to career opportunities in the future of work.
Progress and Achievements
Updates on the progress and achievements of the three startup awardees will be monitored by the AIM-DBI milestone monitoring program. These will be presented later in October 2021 during the culminating event of SCPA’s silver anniversary. Stay tuned!