In photo: From top left (clockwise), SCPA Chairman and Founder Renato Sio, Ven Sio, President and CEO, Sanitary Care Products Asia (SCPA), startup winners of HIIGENE Program Timmy De Jesus of Payruler. JT Solis of Mayani and Angela Chen of Eskwelab
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.
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.