What Is The One Important Attitude Every Entrepreneur Must Possess?

by PhilStar Lifestyle Business

Over 15,000 participants joined the Go Negosyo Youth Entrepreneurship Summit last March 8 at the World Trade Center, led by (from left) Grab CEO and cofounder Anthony Tan, Department of Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, US Ambasssador Sung Kim, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion.

Our Youth Entrepreneurship Summit 2019 was a successful one, attended by over 15,000 participants who joined us at the World Trade Center, Pasay City. It was simulcast in 10 schools and universities, and the summit provided valuable insights on digitalization for both students and entrepreneurs. It was also graced by more than 30 different players in the digital space and techno-preneurs.

During the summit, I shared one important characteristic that every entrepreneur must possess. This is what we call, “The Yes Attitude.” The attitude that we call “Yes” is a positive attitude that must be possessed by anyone, whether you are a student, aspire to be part of the working group or one day become an entrepreneur. A positive attitude in life is what propels many people to become successful.

People like Anthony Tan and many of the summit speakers who started their own digital businesses are here today because they have that attitude and right mindset. Many of us sometimes are challenged with so many problems, but we must remember that problems are a part of life and it is how you look at those problems and turn them into opportunities.

Many entrepreneurs actually look for problems because they are where business models emanate. Hopefully you will learn and be inspired by them and one of these days, be on the same stage they are.

Here are some of the highlights from the biggest digital youth summit held March 8.

The “Innovation through Collaboration” forum featured Robbie Antonio, CEO of Revolution Precrafted; Jeffri Cheong, managing director of Gawin. PH; Patrick Wing-Ho Ngan, CEO and cofounder of QFPay International Limited; and Albert Go, regional director, Lalamove Southeast Asia. Forum moderator was Perry Lam, founder and CEO of Lam Institute.
“Digital Platforms as Enablers for Inclusive Growth” showcased panelists such as Henry Motte-Munoz, CEO and cofounder of Edukasyon.ph; Kenneth Lingan, country head for the Phils. of Google; Lito Villanueva, managing director of FintQ; Anthony Thomas, CEO of Mynt; Ray Alimurung, CEO of Lazada Philippines; Martin Yu, associate director of Shopee Philippines; Brian Cu, president of Grab Philippines; Dennis Ng, founder and CEO of Mober; Crystal Lee-Gonzalez, managing director of Honestbee. Forum moderator was Issa Litton.
The third forum revolved around emerging enterprises that solve real-world problems: Panelists were Mario Jordan “Magellan” Fetalino III, CEO of Acudeen; Andrew Cua, CEO of Tralulu; Paolo Bugayong, cofounder and CEO of Aide; David Foote, founder and CEO, Zennya; Audrey Tanco Uy, CEO and founder of ServeHappy Jobs; Leeroy Levias Shoko, CEO of DibzTech Inc.; Dennis Layug, founder and chairperson of Apptitude; Ellard Capiral, CEO of AdMov; and Keb Cuevas, CEO of Tagani.ph. The forum was moderated by Gretchen Ho.
At “Design Thinking–Translating Creative Mindset to New Business Models” were Shaira Luna, photographer; Gian Javelona, CEO of Paydro and OrangeApps; Dan Matutina, graphic designer, illustrator and founding partner of Plus63 Design Co.; Dan Matutina, Erwan Heusaff, founder of Fat Kid Inside Co.; Neil Dagondon, president and cofounder of Edusuite Inc.; Pepe Diokno, film director, producer and writer; and Brian Tenorio, chair of the Philippine LGBT Chamber of Commerce. The forum was moderated by Sam YG .

The Philippines Tech Startup Scene Is Booming

by Tech Collective

‘Tech startup boom’ has become quite the buzz-phrase for Southeast Asia, with various global reports praising the region’s potential for foreign investment, startup viability, and economic growth as a whole.

The Philippines is no exception and in many ways could be considered one of the pack leaders in the region’s tech startup scene. With their very first Unicorn, Revolution Precrafted under their belt–a startup which reached $1 billion USD in value in its first two years of operation–sizeable investments in infrastructure and a range of government-backed incentives, 2018 was a definitive year for the nation. As the end of the first quarter of ‘19 rapidly approaches, the region is again proving that when it comes to tech startups, the only way is up. Let’s delve into the current tech startup climate in more detail:  

The unicorn leads the pack

As well as being the nation’s first Unicorn–rubbing shoulders with e-Commerce giants’ Lazada and Tokopedia–Revolution Precrafted won the Startup of the Year title at the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards in 2018–and justifiably so.

This online platform connects real estate buyers and developers with a vast range of architects, artists, and designers to create a highly exclusive, pre-constructed living spaces. After signing a $3.2 billion USD deal to manufacture luxury condominiums and villas in Dubai’s renowned “The World Islands” in April 2018, the startup went on to secure an additional $1.2 billion USD for the Okkyin project in Myanmar with KT Group. And it doesn’t stop there.

Read our interview with CEO Robbie Antonio about his plans for the company

The PropTech startup is already looking to raise another $100 million USD in a Series C funding during 2019 and expand into 55 countries with sights set on securing projects in 100 nations by 2020. Although this may sound ambitious, with experts coining the company as “The IKEA of homes”, the disruptive innovation of the project is irrefutable. Each of these luxury living spaces are composed of a series of modular parts that are easily assembled on-site–just like Lego bricks–which makes the product globally adaptable and supports the rapid upward trajectory of the company’s success.

SendFriend takes centre stage

Tech startups across the board have dipped their toes into the Filipino startup scene with success stories spanning from PropTech, MedTech, and right through to e-commerce. However, 2019 is shaping up to be a major year for FinTech in particular, and the blockchain-backed remittance startup SendFriend is a core example of this.

In February this year, SendFriend raised $1.7 million USD from a total of eight investors. The startup enables Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to transfer and convert funds from USD to PHP securely and at the lowest rate available. In a press conference following the funding round, CEO David Lighton voiced that the funding will be used to build the team, develop marketing methods, and focus on community engagement.

The success of SendFriend can be attributed to the fertile soil for FinTech growth and innovation, which comes largely from the population demographics and mobile penetration. According to The Philipines FinTech Report 2018, the nation has a population of just over 100 million, with just 31% of adults possessing a bank account and 58% possessing a mobile device, demonstrating major room for expansion in the sector.

Although payment startups such as Ayannah, a provider of mobile commerce and payment services and Coins.ph, by Betur Inc., are key players in the market, 99% of all transactions in the nation are still made using cash. Alternative payment startups such as Acudeen, a peer-to-peer online marketplace, are increasing in popularity as are blockchain and cryptocurrency startups, accounting for 16% of the FinTech sector startups.

With the government currently formulating policies to drive innovation in this sector, and a clear goal to increase digital payments to account for 20% of transactions by 2020, it is likely that the remainder of 2019 will see more startups jumping aboard the FinTech train.

The Philippines as a hub

The passing of the  “Innovative Startup Act,” by the Filipino government in 2018 featured tax exemptions, free access to government services, and increased efficacy in business permit processing has been a major drawcard for bringing in foreign investment into the region.

One clear example of this is Citystate Group, a Singapore-based group of companies that made a Seed investment in Ticket2Me, a blockchain-powered ticketing startup from the Philippines. Even though the $350,000 USD was raised at the end of February 2019, the startup is already gearing for immediate expansion into other Southeast Asian markets. With the nation proven to be a lucrative startup base, it is likely to be a common theme that the nation will be used as headquarters for startups that have their primary goal and target demographic outside the Philippines.

Here’s why we think The Philippines should be considered as your startup’s HQ

As the Philippines has proven itself as a contender for heavy hitter startups with local and foreign entrepreneurs recognising the advantages of the government-backed incentives. Don’t be surprised to see more activity and, possibly, even the next unicorn to originate from this Western Pacific nation.

The Billion-Dollar Journey Of The Pre-built Home Business Startups

by Hoai Chau, Startup Vietnam

Calling for an investment of up to millions of dollars, Revolution Precrafted made a big splash when it became the Philippines’ first unicorn startup.

On a last day of 2015, in a spacious office in Makati area, Manila, Philippines, after a series of assessments of prospects and risks, the name Revolution Precrafted was finally born with the ambition to be a home business startup. design and build, which was considered difficult to do at the time. 

The idea of ​​pre-assembled houses usually only comes to mind when one thinks of children’s play sets for entertainment purposes and it’s quite crazy to think that they can be used for living. But Robbie Antonio – a Filipino millionaire turned that crazy thing into reality.

Coming from a wealthy family, inheriting the quintessence of the real estate business from his father, business owner Century Properties, Antonio soon joined billion-dollar projects and created relationships with big names. such as Forbes Media, Armani, Versace Home, Paris Hilton or Trump Corporation.

From a young age, thanks to his passionate and serious interest in art collecting, Antonio is known for a series of awards such as one of Artnet’s 20 most innovative art collectors in the world (2014), in the top 200 of the world’s top art collectors (2015), the top 12 young art collectors to watch and the top 100 art collectors (2016).

Robbie Antonio- founder of billion-dollar startup Revolution Precrafted.

Not stopping there, aspiring to innovate the current architecture and the traditional real estate market, he founded Revolution Precrafted with the goal of bringing professional and unique designed houses closer to the masses. at a comfortable price.

The birth of Revolution was also the first brick that laid the foundation for the global prefabricated house design activity. From then on, investment stories about “instant noodles” housing design emerged in the vibrant real estate market as its name “Revolution”.

In the 2018 Mavericks Report, Antonia was named by BuildWorld as one of the 25 pioneers that transformed the construction industry. Singapore Straits Time has voted him in the 50 Asians who have changed the current way of life.

Different path 

Spreading across the beautiful waters of Dubai, The World Islands emerges as the world’s first artificial island with 300 different large and small islands built according to the shape of the world map. The prime location and the chain of high-class hotels and villas full of magic attract tourists from all over the world. Few people can expect that this is one of the cooperation projects of Revolution Precrafted in thousands of other prefabricated house projects around the world.

Revolution Precrafted allows users to submit location information and requirements for the desired home in a professionally designed and easy to use interface. In addition, the site also showcases a large collection of home designs to meet all different tastes, buyers just have to choose.

By using Revolution Precrafted, buyers will have unfinished homes. The frame will be delivered to the site and assembled and completed to become a permanent house. Each home costs around $120,000 and delivers anywhere in the world in as little as 90 days.

After 2 years of operation, Revolution caught the excitement of the real estate market, creating big waves that impacted the Philippine real estate industry at that time and spread to the world.

March 2017 marked a big step forward for Revolution Precrafted when it received an order of 110 million USD and raised 15.4 million USD from a number of investors such as 500 Startups.

Succeeding with a successful funding round in the B series and reaching a valuation of more than one billion USD, in October 2017, Revolution affirmed its position as the first billion-dollar startup in the Philippines. The main investor is K2 VC, founded by venture capitalist Ozi Amanat, famous for its investments in Alibaba, Twitter and a series of other popular startups such as Spotify, Palantir or Paytm.

“We have only completed Series B, so there will be more pressure to grow higher from here,” said Antonio, adding that the startup’s goal is to be in 85-100 cities by 2020.

In 2018, with revenue reaching $ 7.6 billion, Revolution Precrafted is sought after by units in the tourism industry because of its unique design and reasonable price. In March 2018, the company signed a $3.2 billion contract with Seven Tide to provide luxury apartments and hotel villas at The World Islands in Dubai. Then in April 2018 was a $300 million deal in the Caribbean and a $1.2 billion Okkyin City Riverside project in Yangon, Myanmar with KT Group.

The prefabricated house designs of Revolution Precrafted have done.

In addition to its headquarters located in the Philippines, Revolution expands its customer list to more than 28 countries, spanning 6 continents. Not only developing housing design, this startup also deploys restaurant, hotel and retail store models.

Reach new heights

Going back in time 5 to 10 years ago, the idea of ​​a prefabricated house can be intimidating in relation to generic designs and poor quality. However that is not the case with Revolution Precrafted. Robbie has wisely chosen to draw on the credibility of some of the big names in the architecture and design industries to develop the brand and overcome the challenge of facing a series of doubts about design differentiation. .

Top designers are collaborating with Revolution Precrafted.

To date, Revolution has collaborated with more than 80 world-renowned designers and architects such as Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel – winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, David Salle, Tom Dixon and Marcel Wanders, Renowned architecture firm Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects and design team of Lenny Kravitz.

At DealStreetAsia’s 2018 PE-VC Asia Summit in Singapore, Antonio expected the potential to reach a valuation of $10 billion in the next three to four years. The founder will use the proceeds from the Series C funding round to establish additional branches in major markets, including one in Dubai to serve the Middle East market and one in Malaysia for the Southeast market. ASIAN.

“I am considering a public offering (IPO) of Revolution Precrafted securities in the New York or London market in the near future,” Antonio stressed.

500 Startups: How Diversity Drives Deals

by Barbara Stewart, CFA

The venture fund 500 Startups was named the “Most active global investor by VC deal count” in PitchBook’s 2018 Annual Global League Tables, a comprehensive ranking of global private equity and venture capital activity for the year.

I recently interviewed 500 Startups’ innovation director Vera Futorjanski. Futorjanski has a diverse and fascinating background: In her early career, she was a professional Argentine tango dancer, and she has lived in 10 countries and is fluent in five languages. In addition to her role at 500 Startups, she serves as a global ambassador and mentor for Vital Voices, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) led by Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright that works with women leaders.

We talked at length about what it takes to be a deal leader. The big takeaway for me is that diversity drives deals: There are many ways to do business, so don’t be afraid to be different.

500 Startups invests in geographically diverse markets. How does this factor into your success in terms of deal activity?

Barbara Stewart, CFA

Vera Futorjanski: What makes 500 Startups stand out is that we have been looking at emerging markets from the very beginning of our firm. Almost half of our portfolio companies (49%) are from outside of the US. We don’t shy away from investing in founders and companies in markets that are not necessarily known for their big tech successes (yet!). We invest in them because we believe in them.

Our mission is to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. 500 Startups has been investing globally since 2010. The number of countries we’ve invested in is now 74, which means we’ve invested in almost 40% of the world’s nations. We recently added 155 new companies, bringing our total portfolio count to 2,210 companies and over 5,000 founders.

Half of our unicorns are from emerging markets— I think that is impressive. We have 10 unicorns in our portfolio — Talkdesk, Credit Karma, Twilio, Grab, SendGrid, Canva, Intercom, Bukalapak, GitLab, and Revolution Precrafted. We are also the most active VC in the region where I am based (Middle East and North Africa), and we aim to maintain that lead and continue to get access to the best deal flow through our No. 1 position in the market.

How and why does gender diversity come into play in your organization?

Diversity permeates throughout the 500 Startups organization, and one of our core values is to “Be Inclusive.” Understanding the importance of a gender-inclusive culture, we believe that venture capital and private equity firms of the future shouldn’t look like firms from the past and that moving toward greater diversity will differentiate us.

We are a team of over 150 professionals of which 51% are women. Our CEO is a woman. When we run investor training courses hosted in partnership with top universities like Stanford and Berkeley for up-and-coming investors around the world, we always ensure that at least one-third of each group of the course participants are women, and we offer scholarships for female investors when needed.

You have a big focus on investing in female founders. Why?

I think it’s this inclusive outlook on the world that contributes to 500 Startups’ success, combined with a very strong female leadership.

First Round’s 2016 research findings showed that portfolio investments in startups with at least one woman founder performed 63% better than investments in exclusively male teams. What an opportunity!

I am proud to say that 26% of our investments are led by at least one female founder. At Batch 24 — they recently hosted a full-house demo day — 40% of the companies had a female founder and 50% had a female minority founder.

Moreover, 525 companies in our portfolio of 2000-plus startups have at least one female founding team member, which is more than three times the industry average. In the two most recent batches of our San Francisco Seed Program, more than one-third of the companies had at least one female founder. Additionally, 4 of the 10 “unicorns” 500 Startups has invested in — Canva, Credit Karma, Grab, and Talkdesk — include a female co-founder.

It is truly shocking to me that, as per TechCrunch, only 2% of US VC dollars go to women-led startups. My driving force is to ensure we get more money and more opportunities for women-led startups to empower them and help them thrive.

What advice can you give those who aspire to become founders?

First of all, at a high level, think not in terms of “I want to be a founder” but rather, “What real issue am I solving?” From there, clearly you need to be passionate about what you do, but you also need to be persistent and resilient at the same time. In other words, don’t give up when the going gets tough. But importantly, also be able to recognize if an idea is not worth pursuing.

My top three pieces of advice are:

1. Don’t be afraid to change paths in life. Even if the clear path is not visible at the time, your job changes might lead to something much bigger. My own career is a perfect example. I started as a political consultant in the European Union. After three years, I jumped to a fast-paced environment at Rocket Internet leading their global communications during the largest tech IPO in Germany, and then I moved to Dubai to build a startup that I launched and ran for a year.

From there, the Dubai Government headhunted me to be part of their founding team to build the Dubai Future Accelerators. That opportunity was possible only because of my three previous very diverse experiences [that gave me an] understanding of politics, communications expertise, and entrepreneurship experience.

As Steve Jobs said, “You cannot connect dots looking forward, but you can connect dots looking backwards.”

2. Be a leader, not a boss. It is only then that people will believe in you and your vision. In order for your business to be a success, you have to find the right talent — it is imperative that you have the right team around you. You need to hire people who will work very hard . . . as if it were their own business. This requires strong leadership skills and a team focus.

3. Network! This advice needs to be taken seriously, especially by female founders. Men have it slightly easier because of the longstanding traditions of boys’ clubs and other networking opportunities. Often it is during the private networking times that important connections are made that later lead to job or funding opportunities.

People are more likely to invest in those founders to whom they can relate, in whom they might even potentially see themselves. Hence, it’s so important to get more women into the VC space.

We still have to do a lot of work on mind shift and perceptions. As the saying goes, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” It’s of the utmost importance that we get more women in leading positions, on boards, as CEOs and as heads of state and world organizations.

Meet The Man Behind The First ‘Unicorn” Startup In Philippines- Valued At Over US$1B In Under 2 Years

by Zafirah Salim (vulcanpost.com)

True to his startup’s name – Revolution Precrafted – Robbie Antonio believes that he’s starting a revolution with his property business.

His startup mixes prefab homes and luxury branding to revolutionize the real estate industry – not just in the Philippines, but also around the world.

Its innovativeness has made it the first startup in the Philippines to achieve ‘unicorn’ status, a term used to describe a company that has a valuation of US$1 billion.

According to TechinAsia, it is one of the fastest companies to achieve this billion-dollar status in the Southeast region.

Early last year, prolific startup accelerator 500 Startups poured money into Revolution, bringing the company’s valuation to US$256 million.

Then in October 2017, a fresh round of funding led by Singaporean venture capital firm K2 Global raised an undisclosed amount that brought the startup over the billion-dollar mark.

Real Estate Runs In His Blood 

Robbie Antonio (left) and his father Jose E.B. Antonio (right) / Image Credit: Forbes

Robbie, the youngest to be featured in Forbes’ 2017 list of the 50 richest people in the Philippines, belongs to a family that has made its fortune in real estate.

His father – Jose E.B. Antonio – owns Century Properties and shook up the real estate market by selling an aspirational lifestyle to Filipinos, and played to their penchant for celebrities and branded names.

Trump Tower in Manila / Image Credit: Condo Rent Sale

As the managing director, Robbie is responsible for spearheading the company’s direction and branded collaborations like the Trump Tower in Manila, a Paris Hilton-branded collection of condos, Milano Resides by Versace, Acqua Livingstone by Missoni Home, and the world’s first Forbes Tower.

“I’ve done about US$2.1 billion worth of branded deals for the family business,” Robbie said in an interview with Tech Wire Asia.

He added that this hands-on experience has made him “understand the pain points in real estate”, and working on these glitzy projects is what led him to start up his own company.

Established in December 2015, Revolution Precrafted is a manifestation of Robbie’s dream to fuse his experience in constructing stunning, exclusive buildings with his deep love for contemporary art.

Robbie is actually an avid art collector who has been recognised as one of the top collectors in the world by Artnet in 2016, placed alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Bernard Arnault, Paul Allen, and other point-one percenters.

According to him, this obsession with art is what led him to develop branded homes for the middle market and ultimately want to make designer homes accessible to more people.

“My inspiration for the project came from my own passion and experience in art collection. I wanted to make architecture collectible – but at an accessible price point,” Robbie said in an interview with Huffington Post.

“Revolution preserves the exclusivity of art collection and by introducing prefabricated technology, it expands the potential of ownership.”

Making Designer Homes More Accessible

Revolution Precrafted sells highly customisable prefabricated properties such as modular homes, condominiums, pavilions, pop-up retail stores, and fitness centres.

Design Miami 2015 – Asstant Fania Castro Photographer Mike Butler

Developed by world-renowned architects and designers like the late Zaha Hadid, David Salle, Tom Dixon, and Marcel Wanders, the homes are priced at an average of US$120,000.

Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled.

This means that you don’t have to go through the hassle of hiring a whole team of contractors, manufacturers or builders, and also save on the astronomical fees of commissioning a famous architect.

The only instructions Robbie gave his designers was to make a structure from 50 to 250 square meters with components that could fit in a shipping container.

Through his ties with quality fabricators here and abroad, Revolution can also complete the developments faster.

A 50-square-meter home can be done in as fast as 90 days as opposed to the usual two years, since most of the components have already been fabricated.

Robbie told Esquire PH that he has “worked with 13 Pritzker Prize architects, possibly more than any human being in the world.”

“I love doing this! It’s not just about the valuation. It’s [about] creating something so inherently different.”

“We have intellectual property over all these names – you can get them at a ridiculously high price and wait a number of years, or get it from us in three months at a much cheaper price.”

In a separate interview with CoBo, Robbie said that he has a penchant for “[working] with the best people in the world”.

Learning from the best is a “privilege” and he wants to “impart that to the world”, he added.

Robbie Antonio (left) and Paris Hilton (middle) at an Azure media conference in 2011 / Image Credit: Weekend Balita

This sort of branded collaboration has been done before in retail, such as Rodarte for Target and Balmain for H&M, but it’s definitely a novel concept in homes and architectures.

According to an interview with Tech Wire Asia, such branding can help increase the development’s sale price compared to competitors who might have a superior location, and it also tends to sell faster.

By leveraging the star power of these big names, Revolution successfully drives up the value of his buildings and simultaneously eliminates the idea that prefabricated homes are ‘cheap’.

But beyond the high valuation, Robbie said that such branded collaborations are great because they churn out designs that are “inherently different.”

“I’ve been [linking up architects with different celebrities] for well over a decade already, so [I’ve] understood how we could enhance the liveability and saleability of a product,” he told Tech Wire Asia.

“The value proposition of [Revolution] is that you can go to Lenny Kravitz – if you can – pay him a million dollars, wait two to three years of your life – or do it through me for an affordable price.”

“We’re the only branded housing company in the world.”

He admitted that keeping prices low has been a challenge – to “[create] something couture at Zara prices, while still keeping to the DNA of the architects and designers, who are used to blowing through sky-high budgets.”

Not Your Regular Real Estate Company

Image Credit: Revolution Precrafted

According to Robbie, his startup is greatly inspired by Airbnb and he aims to disrupt the real estate industry through lower price points and its technological innovations.

He admires Airbnb’s simple model of having no land and zero inventory, a global footprint, and its ability to use technology in a disruptive way.

And that’s exactly what Robbie wants to achieve with his own company.

“We are the complete antithesis of the traditional real estate company. We cater to the world. We do not have to be site-specific, buy land, take out construction loans, or have inventory,” he told DealstreetAsia.

“Our highly differentiated business model provides the best in architectural design globally, at lower costs and shorter timelines, through the ingenious application of technological innovation.”

With tech as the very fiber of its DNA, Revolution uses advanced robotics to create the house in order to reduce the errors and speed up the process.

Unlike traditional players, it’s very low on capital expenditures as it doesn’t own land; it’s not forced to sell in particular sites (it ships homes globally); and it gets its cash flow in three months versus the typical three to four years’ turnover time for brick and mortar firms.

“I would like to believe we have fundamentally transformed the real estate/property development sector by introducing affordability, accessibility, simplicity, convenience, and sustainability to an otherwise intimidating, complicated and generally expensive industry,” he told Forbes

As of March 2017, the company has booked US$110 million in orders for real estate projects.

When asked what he thinks are the contributing factor(s) of his startup’s success, he said that it’s “predicated on addressing the most common pain points of home buyers – speed, quality, cost, design, and complexity of the process.”

“Our fabricators can complete the developments faster. A home can be completed in three months as opposed to the usual two years as most of the components have already been fabricated, ready for assembly at the job site.”

“Moreover, instead of wasting six months to a year on design, our clients can choose from the works of the most revered award-winning architects and artists.”

Essentially, we democratize access to branded design of living spaces by combining world-renowned designers with the latest advances in construction technology.

The “Ikea Of Homebuilding”

Robbie Antonio, founder of Revolution Precrafted / Image Credit: Revolution Precrafted

Moving forward, Robbie said that he is confident that his startup will be the global leader in designer fabricated structures, and eventually be the “Ikea of homebuilding”.

Although its main markets lie in Southeast Asia, the startup is “making moves to penetrate the American, Middle-Eastern and European markets.”

By this year, it aims to have at least four to five offices within Southeast Asia.

Globally, they plan on having offices in 20 countries – UAE, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, USA, Mexico, UK, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy.

“And the list just keeps on growing. Global domination is our end goal,” Robbie told DealStreetAsia.

Sharing a piece of advice to fellow entrepreneurs, Robbie said that the real problem with the local startup community is the “lack of funding“.

If you do not have access to capital in the Philippines, be resourceful and go abroad. There are other countries like Malaysia or Indonesia, where there are more early-stage VC funds than the Philippines. Go pitch to them.

“Passion is not enough; obsession is key. You have to be extremely ambitious. Believe in your vision and see it through. Giving up should never be an option,” he added.

Revolution Precrafted founder among 25 BuiltWorld Pioneers

by The Philippine Star

Robbie Antonio, the founder and CEO of unicorn propertytech startup Revolution Pre-crafted, has been chosen as part of BuiltWorld’s first-ever Mavericks Report: “25 Pioneers Who’ve Transformed The Built Industry,” a recognition of the most influential movers and shakers in the fields of global architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and re- industry (RE)

BuiltWorld is a global online re source for players in the AEC and RE industries.

The prestigious accolade puts Antonio alongside some of the most esteemed luminaries in real estate, venture finance, architecture/design, construction, engineering and software solutions. These include Tesla founder Elon Musk, Pritzer-award winner Frank Ghery and American unicorn founders Adam Neumann of Wework and Michael Marks of Katerra, among others.

“We are humbled by this citation from BuiltWorld. We feel so honored to be part of such esteemed individuals who have helped transform their respective industries, and helped create a better, more modern world,” Antonio said.

Revolution Precrafted is a company that manufactures, supplies and ships limited edition, design driven prefabricated homes, pavilions and other related structures. The company has partnered with 73 of the world’s most preeminent ar-chitects, designers and artists from around the world including Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, and Christian de Portzamparc, among others.

Robbie Antonio

“In order to disrupt the land-scape, you have to be more innovative and you have to take more risks. Creating luxury prefabricated homes was a big challenge because before the company, people don’t really associate prefabricated homes and structures to quality and luxury. But we saw the opportunity to create something different and we took the risk. The payoff has been quite re warding,” Antonio added.

Since its inception in 2015,Revolution Precrafted has since become the fastest company to reach startup status in Southeast Asia, valued at $1 billion.

It has bagged close to $6 billion worth of projects, including $1.1-billion Batulao Artscapes in Nasugbu, Batangas and the $350-million Revolution Flavorscapes project in Mexico, Pampanga.

In March, the company announced its $3.2-billion partnership with Seven Tides to build condominiums, apartments and hotel villas on nine islands at “The World” project in Dubai. The company also signed a deal with Myanmar’s KT Group for the supply of homes and retail structures for the $1.2-billion Okkyin mixed development project in Yangon.

Philippines’ First $1 billion Startup Hopes To Inspire Entrepreneurs

by Cathy Yang and Jessica Fenol, ABS-CBN News

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba53QZoDbBJ/

MANILA – The founder of the Philippines first “unicorn” or $1 billion startup said he hoped his success would inspire more Filipino entrepreneurs to think out of the box.

Revolution Precrafted, builder of designer modular homes, is led by Jose Roberto Antonio, one of the heirs of luxury developer Century Properties Group.

“I hope that inspires Filipino entrepreneurs, brilliant minds out there. Hopefully in our own little way, the company inspires some people going forward,” Antonio told ANC on the sidelines of the ASEAN Business & Investment Summit.

Antonio said he had to be “flexible” with pricing in Southeast Asia to lure more buyers.

“The house is still the biggest purchase of a human being, our business plan is to really establish formidable joint ventures with local business people, developers to streamline business further,” he added.

At Revolution, homes can be built from 3 months to 2 years using advanced robotics, he said.

Read More:  ASEAN 2017   ASEAN Business and Investment Summit  

Meet Philippines’ First Unicorn Startup

by Adelaida Salikha, SEASIA

The Philippines has hit a huge milestone: it just got its first unicorn startup.

Revolution Pre-crafted, a developer of prefabricated designer homes, has raised its series B round co-led by Singapore’s K2 VC, valuing the company at over US$1 billion, according to two sources familiar with the deal.

That makes Revolution – which is just about to turn two years old in December – one of, if not, the fastest to achieve billion-dollar status in Southeast Asia, one of the sources said and this was confirmed by Tech in Asia data.

The Billboard House Rendered | Revolution PreCrafted

The startup’s new prominent investor K2 was founded by venture capitalist Ozi Amanat, who’s known for his investments in Alibaba and Twitter before their public offerings.

K2 counts several unicorns in its portfolio – Spotify, Magic Leap, Paytm, and Palantir.

“Large international family offices have participated in the round as well,” the other source stated. We’ve reached out to Revolution and K2 for their statements.

It is a rare breakout story for the Philippines’ nascent technology scene where startup programs and policies, as well as funding are yet to catch up with neighbor markets.

“We need more success stories like Revolution to inspire other young people to take a risk and start their own companies,” said Butch Meily, president of Filipino incubator-accelerator Ideaspace and Qbo Innovation Hub.

The man behind the startup, Robbie Antonio, belongs to one of the Philippines’ wealthiest families that has built its fortune in real estate.

Robbie Antonio | Revolution Precrafted.

A voracious art collector, Antonio is the brains behind billions worth of his family’s projects done in collaboration with big names such as Forbes Media, Armani/Casa, Versace Home, Paris Hilton, and the Trump group.

He’s turned to entrepreneurship to make designer homes accessible to more people.

His company sells prefab homes conceived by world-renowned architects and designers like Zaha Hadid, David Salle, Tom Dixon, and Marcel Wanders. The homes are priced at an average of US$120,000. They can be ordered from the company’s site and shipped anywhere in the globe in at least 90 days.

Bamboo Pavilion Rendered | Revolution PreCrafted
BLOCK Rendered View | Revolution PreCrafted

It had booked US$110 million in orders and just raised a US$15.4 million round from investors like 500 Startups, which fought hard to get into the deal. “The company didn’t need to raise. I had to convince them to take my money for value-add, not cash,” 500 managing partner Khailee Ng previously said.

“This is truly a milestone for the Philippine startup ecosystem. Hopefully, this will put us on the map as a country able to produce intellectual property and product-based technologies,” said Jojo Flores, co-founder of accelerator Plug and Play. “I’m also expecting this event to unleash some of the investment capital from traditional brick and mortar businesses to our tech startups and our corporations to begin integrating startups into their businesses.”

“This achievement is a clarion call to the first, second, and third generation families invested heavily in the Philippines to look closely at how they can innovate in their present markets and open up new markets and segments for themselves,” commented Paul Pajo, co-founder of Smart Developer Network, a developer community program in the Philippines.


Source : TechInAsiahttp://news.abs-cbn.com/business/11/14/17/philippines-first-1-billion-startup-hopes-to-inspire-entrepreneurs