The Sanitary Care Products Asia (SCPA) is celebrating its 25th year by giving back to the local startup community. In partnership with the Asian Institute of Management-Dado Banatao Incubator (AIM-DBI), the SCPA launched the Human Investment x Impact Grant for Entrepreneurship and Empowerment or HIIGENE. It is a social accelerator program that marks the first time a local company and a business incubator have partnered up for such a project.
The HIIGENE program was designed to support the local entrepreneurial scene by providing opportunities to home-grown startups that are seeking to accelerate their businesses. The top criterion for the selection process is people management, which is a manifestation of the SCPA’s credo that successful organizations are built on the strengths of its people. The program will provide equity-free grants of up to Php 500,000 to each of three startup companies. Payruler is one of the companies that was awarded the grant together with Eskwelabs, and Mayani.
The winning startups underwent a thorough and comprehensive selection process that was spearheaded by SCPA executives together with members of the academe and the corporate industry. The initial selection phase started out with 11 hopeful startups. In the second phase of the selection process, the list was trimmed down to just five. Ultimately, the entire program culminated in the selection of the three previously mentioned companies.
Photo courtesy of SCPA Facebook Page
Aside from the Php 500,000 cash infusion that has been awarded to each of these companies, Payruler, Eskwelabs, and Mayani will participate in a 3-month mentorship program that will be conducted by SCPA executives. The mentorship program will cover a wide range of topics ranging from business operations and strategies to financial management and marketing.
Payruler, one of the three companies to be awarded with a grant, is a full-suite HRMS and payroll system. It’s designed to be an all-in-one platform for HR teams and professionals that promotes better efficiency and productivity within the workplace. The company’s main focus is to help HR departments all over the country achieve their administrative tasks seamlessly so as to free them up to focus on building company culture and identity through its people. The other two winners of the grant are Mayani, a farm-to-table business venture and Eskwelabs, a digital data science education platform that promotes participatory learning.