Technology
F(DEV)’s Crowdfunding Venture Investree Philippines Maintains Optimistic Outlook, Eyes to Provide Accessible Financing Amid Predicted Global Recession

Investree Philippines, the first crowdfunding intermediary and funding platform in the country, maintains a positive outlook on financing this year amid predicted global financial crisis. The leading crowdfunding platform is set to launch initiatives to accelerate post-pandemic recovery and promote recession resiliency through accessible and inclusive financing.
Experts have warned national leaders of a possible global recession that’s predicted to hit a third of the world’s economy this year. Although the Department of Finance (DoF) recently claimed that the Philippines may avoid the recession, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) move to raise policy rates in addressing inflation posts additional challenges to startups and SMEs.[1]
“We’ve been monitoring industries that will continue to be resilient. Being SME-focused has its pros and cons. In this case, it helps that our focus can be concentrated on the SMEs that we can build relationships with in the next 12 months and do our best to help them connect with the right investors for whatever financing assistance they might need. In this regard, we can contribute what we can to helping the Philippines avoid recession,” says Investree Philippines Country Manager Alexander Capulong.
Investree Philippines notes that investors will be more cautious this year. However, they are positioned to help SMEs grow their businesses and help investors find the right opportunities amid the economic headwinds.
“We have a positive outlook for 2023. We see an opportunity despite the predicted global recession and the ongoing inflation. We’ve been making many tweaks in our business model over the past year. We’re excited to bring about these changes this year as we get closer to our dream of being the foremost SME crowdfunding platform,” says Capulong.
Capulong added that 2023 remains one of the best times to crowdfund in the Philippines. The current economic challenges prompt traditional sources of funding like banks or mature institutions to be more conservative. “Sometimes they can be portrayed as impediments but we can’t blame them. They have a duty to manage their risks especially for those handling public deposits. Our goal at Investree is to develop ways to help even conservative players safely deploy capital to the market because we have the capability to help mitigate the risks. It’s an extremely complex endeavor given the complexities teams like ours have to juggle but that’s part of the excitement. The good news for potential investors or issuers (SMEs) is that we do the heavy lifting so they can focus on their main needs,” Capulong explains.
Investree Philippines retains optimism and encourages stakeholders (lenders and borrowers) to share their confidence in its sustainable crowdfunding business model that can withstand the current market condition. Its platform optimizes data and technology to connect small and medium enterprises with institutional investors, creating an environment where #EveryoneCanGrow.
Investree Philippines, a venture of F(DEV) Digital Innovations and Ventures, Inc. and Investree Singapore Pte Ltd, was the first to secure an SEC-granted permanent license early last year. Its 2-gether Towards the Future campaign launched financial inclusion and business management programs that empowered local enterprise owners through knowledge-sharing #BeyondACrowdfundingPlatform. Its planned nationwide expansion, which kick-started in the last quarter of 2022, is slowly solidifying Investree Philippines’ presence in Central and Western Visayas and the Davao region.
“We’ve been working hard to improve our strengths in making SMEs a viable opportunity especially against other more traditional options like the stock, bond, or crypto markets. As a crowdfunding platform, our long-term goal is to have a diverse set of investors with varying appetites. This broad participation will help us match them with the many different types of SMEs in the Philippines,” says Capulong.
Under its 2023 campaign 202TREE: Renew, Refresh, Reactivate, Investree Philippines will launch SME-focused educational programs on financial inclusion and modern-day business management techniques. The campaign also seeks to establish and strengthen Investree’s governmental and nongovernmental partnerships through participating in SEC Roadshow 2023, networking initiatives with Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Philippine SME Business Expo (PhilSME), and Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines (SCMAP), and educational campaigns with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Investree Philippines also remains consistent with the development of its online platform to improve customer experience. New services are expected to launch soon to cater the needs of other critical segments of the industry.
F(DEV) Founding CEO Xavier Marzan expresses his support for Investree Philippines’ strong financial inclusion agenda. “We are one with Investree Philippines in their mission to back SMEs in achieving their full potential amid these challenging times. Our vision is for local businesses to get access to financial solutions that can help them recover and grow – SMEs are the backbone of our local economy so we need to constantly look at helping this base,” said Marzan.
Investree Philippines is open to interested SMEs, institutional investors, and anchors for partnership opportunities. Visit Investree Philippines’ channels and learn more about the 202TREE campaign at www.investree.ph or contact cs@investree.ph. Follow its social media channels @investree.ph on Instagram and Investree Philippines on Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Technology
EdTech and AI

Education is changing in different ways, but the future is bright because of the innovations EdTech and AI can offer
The existence of AI and EdTech platforms is something that learners and educators cannot question anymore. They have changed how education runs, and it will continue to be adapted to the growing innovation in learning. But why does it matter?
While there is skepticism towards using AI and technology in education, 21st-century learners and educators won’t deny how it assisted them to become better performers in the classroom. It helped drive growth by streamlining innovative methods that a traditional classroom cannot do alone. The support it can give to schools is needed to create future-ready learners. However, even with the existence of AI, it will never replace teachers, but it will complement and extend their expertise for every learner.
Quipper and ELSA Speak wanted to highlight this when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last year.
“Our collaboration aims to support the education sector in elevating the quality of education in the Philippines by integrating the power of EdTech and AI. ELSA Speak, an AI-driven English-speaking coach, together with Quipper, the leading EdTech and LMS platforms in the Philippines, aims to revolutionize education beyond the current means that we have,” said Yusuke Takagi, CEO of Quipper Philippines
Here’s how AI and EdTech can help elevate learning in classrooms, as shared by Quipper and ELSA Speak:
Increases efficiency in a classroom. Most of the time, teachers must spend hours evaluating a student’s homework and activities. It takes away the time to create, update, and deliver lessons to students. Without an ample amount of time, teachers will sacrifice the quality of education that they can give to students.
With AI and an EdTech platform, it can help manage the teachers’ workload by intervening with their operational activities. For example, on ELSA’s speech recognition platform, AI evaluates students’ spoken English and provides detailed feedback on pronunciation, grammar, and fluency with accuracy rate of 95 percent. Grading English lessons will now be easier for teachers. Moreover, an EdTech platform like Quipper offers automated checking of students’ activities and an item analysis feature to monitor students’ performance in class easier.
Learning is more personalized for students. Nothing beats a learning environment where students can excel while elevating their individuality. But due to the number of students a teacher handles, most of the time, educators need to offer their attention to fully assist them in their growth.
That is why AI supports teachers by giving them data that can be used for proper assessments, like how ELSA’s adaptive system uses a student’s behavior and performance to create a personalized learning path. Whereas with Quipper, teachers can access over 4000+ downloadable study guides as alternatives to textbooks and 1000+ video lessons to enhance their students’ learning.
To develop their teaching profession. Teachers must adapt to the changing tides of education, so professional development is vital to improving an educator’s effectiveness in delivering quality learning.
For example, ELSA Speak, as an AI-driven English-speaking coach, can help deliver excellent lessons for learners and educators to improve their English communication skills. It will enhance their competitiveness as a teacher. On the other hand, Quipper, as an EdTech and LMS platform, can help offer comprehensive guides and other teaching resources to support the learning environment they will provide for their students.
Indeed, there is much to gain when innovation is prioritized in education. The collaboration of teachers and students while integrating technology—AI and EdTech—will develop a conducive education for all.
“Our move to collaborate with Quipper aims to bridge the gap between teachers and EdTech plus AI. We want to demonstrate how vital it is to adopt this pairing to improve the education we can offer our students. This is a change for the better, and we hope to see this even more in the future,” said Vu Van, Founder and CEO of ELSA Speak.
To learn more about Quipper Philippines and its other programs and initiatives, visit https://www.quipper.com/ph/.
Stratpoint
#Stratpoint Reinforces Ability to Deliver Modern Software Architectures through Partnership with #MongoDB

Stratpoint Technologies, accelerator of digital transformation through software, managed QA, cloud, data, and AI, is now a value-added reseller and consulting services partner of MongoDB. The partnership allows Stratpoint to offer more companies a comprehensively modern software architecture and, in turn, increases MongoDB’s footprint in the Philippines.
MongoDB is the developer data platform that provides the services and tools necessary to build distributed applications fast, at the performance and scale users demand. At the heart of the platform is MongoDB’s document database that stores data in flexible, JSON-like documents, making it the best way to work with data. MongoDB’s distributed architecture also makes high availability, horizontal scaling, and geographic distribution simple and seamless.
“We chose to partner with MongoDB because of its ability to support modern software architectures such as microservices — a perfect fit in the technology portfolio of Stratpoint. Using MongoDB as part of the solution architecture modernizes the migration of customers to the cloud. With MongoDB as part of our portfolio, we will provide more value to our clients, as we help them respond to the increasing demands of the digital economy,“ said Sonny Carlos, Cloud and Data business head of Stratpoint.
“The Philippines is a hugely exciting market for MongoDB, with a large and talented population of developers and thousands of innovative companies.We look forward to working with Stratpoint to help these organizations harness the full power of MongoDB by equipping their technical teams with the tools, training, and certifications they need to succeed,” said Stewart Garrett, Regional Vice President ASEAN at MongoDB.
With Agile software development, MongoDB, and AWS services, Stratpoint delivers a truly modern and future-ready approach to digital transformation.
Companies who want to leverage the power of MongoDB may acquire it from the AWS Marketplace, MongoDB’s cloud service Atlas, or directly from Stratpoint. For more information, visit www.stratpoint.com.
About Stratpoint Technologies
Stratpoint accelerates digital transformation of businesses, delivering enterprise-grade solutions globally for more than 20 years. We specialize in agile software development, managed QA, cloud, data, and AI. Visit www.stratpoint.com.
About MongoDB
MongoDB is the developer data platform company empowering innovators to create,
transform, and disrupt industries by unleashing the power of software and data.
Headquartered in New York, MongoDB has more than 40,800 customers in over 100 countries. The MongoDB database platform has been downloaded over 365 million times and there have been more than 1.8 million registrations for MongoDB University courses.
Technlogy News
Why Innovation Matters: Revolutionizing #Education with #EdTech and #AI

Education is changing in different ways, but the future is bright because of the innovations EdTech and AI can offer
The existence of AI and EdTech platforms is something that learners and educators cannot question anymore. They have changed how education runs, and it will continue to be adapted to the growing innovation in learning. But why does it matter?
While there is skepticism towards using AI and technology in education, 21st-century learners and educators won’t deny how it assisted them to become better performers in the classroom. It helped drive growth by streamlining innovative methods that a traditional classroom cannot do alone. The support it can give to schools is needed to create future-ready learners. However, even with the existence of AI, it will never replace teachers, but it will complement and extend their expertise for every learner.
Quipper and ELSA Speak wanted to highlight this when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last year.
“Our collaboration aims to support the education sector in elevating the quality of education in the Philippines by integrating the power of EdTech and AI. ELSA Speak, an AI-driven English-speaking coach, together with Quipper, the leading EdTech and LMS platforms in the Philippines, aims to revolutionize education beyond the current means that we have,” said Yusuke Takagi, CEO of Quipper Philippines
Here’s how AI and EdTech can help elevate learning in classrooms, as shared by Quipper and ELSA Speak:
Increases efficiency in a classroom. Most of the time, teachers must spend hours evaluating a student’s homework and activities. It takes away the time to create, update, and deliver lessons to students. Without an ample amount of time, teachers will sacrifice the quality of education that they can give to students.
With AI and an EdTech platform, it can help manage the teachers’ workload by intervening with their operational activities. For example, on ELSA’s speech recognition platform, AI evaluates students’ spoken English and provides detailed feedback on pronunciation, grammar, and fluency with accuracy rate of 95 percent. Grading English lessons will now be easier for teachers. Moreover, an EdTech platform like Quipper offers automated checking of students’ activities and an item analysis feature to monitor students’ performance in class easier.
Learning is more personalized for students. Nothing beats a learning environment where students can excel while elevating their individuality. But due to the number of students a teacher handles, most of the time, educators need to offer their attention to fully assist them in their growth.
That is why AI supports teachers by giving them data that can be used for proper assessments, like how ELSA’s adaptive system uses a student’s behavior and performance to create a personalized learning path. Whereas with Quipper, teachers can access over 4000+ downloadable study guides as alternatives to textbooks and 1000+ video lessons to enhance their students’ learning.
To develop their teaching profession. Teachers must adapt to the changing tides of education, so professional development is vital to improving an educator’s effectiveness in delivering quality learning.
For example, ELSA Speak, as an AI-driven English-speaking coach, can help deliver excellent lessons for learners and educators to improve their English communication skills. It will enhance their competitiveness as a teacher. On the other hand, Quipper, as an EdTech and LMS platform, can help offer comprehensive guides and other teaching resources to support the learning environment they will provide for their students.
Indeed, there is much to gain when innovation is prioritized in education. The collaboration of teachers and students while integrating technology—AI and EdTech—will develop a conducive education for all.
“Our move to collaborate with Quipper aims to bridge the gap between teachers and EdTech plus AI. We want to demonstrate how vital it is to adopt this pairing to improve the education we can offer our students. This is a change for the better, and we hope to see this even more in the future,” said Vu Van, Founder and CEO of ELSA Speak.
To learn more about Quipper Philippines and its other programs and initiatives, visit https://www.quipper.com/ph/.
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