Block Dojo Philippines to fuel Filipino startups, Jay Gujral tells CoinGeek Backstage

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The Philippines has an impressive pool of talented individuals in the tech industry. With its young and tech-savvy population, the country has been able to produce a significant number of skilled professionals, including engineers, developers, and technicians. It’s no surprise that the Philippines takes pride in its workforce.

At the Block Dojo Philippines launch in August, Jay Gujral, the Global Director of the incubator program, looks at the potential of the country’s homegrown talents and local startups and how the incubator could help the Philippines’ market grow. Also with CoinGeek Backstage was the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Assistant Secretary Edwin Ligot, who shared his expectations about the program.

London-based Block Dojo is now in the Philippines

Block Dojo initially made waves in the United Kingdom, where they offered and helped train small companies to become the next big thing. In the Philippines, Block Dojo will be launching its first cohort in the province of Bataan starting on January 9, 2024. Unlike the previous workshops in the United Kingdom, the Philippines program will be done in partnership with the Provincial Government of Bataan.

When asked what are the plans in the pipeline, the global director of the incubator says Block Dojo aims to build 30 companies by next year.

“We’ll be doing three programs a year. We’ll be building founders from the ‘idea stage’ to their first product, basically their first company, within 12 weeks. And we do that three times a year and build 30 companies over the course of next year. So we’re going to go hard and really give Filipino entrepreneurship a blockchain boost,” he shared.

“Whether you’re Web2, Web2.5, Web3 [you can] apply to the program, and we will assess whether or not blockchain actually fits. And if it does or if we can make it fit, then we will put you through to the next stage and assess again whether you’re a fit for the program in general,” he added.

How will the Philippines benefit from Block Dojo?

DICT Asec. Ligot says his agency has many expectations for the 12-week incubator program as he sees how Block Dojo works personally to help startups get the funding they need in London.

“I’m very excited about Block Dojo in the Philippines. There’s a lot of creative talents here, [since] we Filipinos are very creative,” he said.

The DICT assistant secretary proceeds to say that currently, the Philippines data works in silos. He hopes that with the launch of Block Dojo in the country, blockchain can help break down these silos and eventually lead to the creation of various business models.

Block Dojo Philippines is a 12-week incubator program led by Block Dojo in partnership with global blockchain solutions firm nChain. The first cohort will be held in Bataan on January 9, 2024, with a program value of PHP12.1 million (US$216,324).

“We are doing what we can to showcase the blockchain or the dojo to the region,” Gujral remarked.

Watch: Block Dojo Philippines aims to launch 30 ventures in 2024