How It Works

The Agri-Aqua Innovation Challenge is a multi-stage program to identify the teams deserving of support and enhance their chances of succeeding in the competitive world.

Application & Screening

Interested participants are encouraged to apply online at https://apply.agri-aqua.aim.edu.

The Innovation Challenge has two categories of participants – the Startups category and the Student Teams category. Startups are at an early stage and have formal business registration either through SEC or DTI no later than 7 years ago. A member of the startup should not be a finalist of a previous edition of the Innovation Challenge or recipient of a DOST Startup Grant Fund to participate.

Student teams, on the other hand, are college or graduate students (e.g. Ph.D./MS) that have not yet formalized their innovation journey but have a technology that can be transformed into a product and become the basis of their business. The Innovation Challenge aims to provide a “bridge” for them to translate their research into actual products and services that will benefit more Filipinos and support our industries.

Supporting the teams are DOST’s Agri-Aqua Technology Business Incubators (ATBI). Participants need to identify their preferred ATBI and eventually get an endorsement from them to complete their application. The endorsement will be based on the criteria of the Innovation Challenge aside from the fit with the ATBI.

The criteria for participation are Market Relevance, Product Creativity and Business Viability. Below are some points to consider for each criterion:

Startup Category	Student Category
Market Relevance	How important is the problem? How many are affected? How much is it costing them to solve the problem? How much positive economic, social, and/or environmental impact (quality and quantity) does solving this problem have?
Product Creativity	How differentiated and creative is the approach to solving the problem from existing solutions in the market? How affordable, accessible, usable, or user-friendly is the product? Do they have processes, resources and supply chains that provide a competitive advantage?
Business Viability	Is the business model validated and how scalable is it? Do they have a strategy and a plan to support their growth and reach their targets? Do they have the appropriate team and resources to take the company to the next level?

Training & Mentorship

After screening the application, 40 startups and student teams will undergo online training and mentorship at the Asian Institute of Management with the Management Association of the Philippines as the industry partner. Training will cover the three main development areas – customer development, product development and business development. Two leaders of each team and a host ATBI member will attend the training for 3 weeks. The schedule will be 6:00 – 9:30 pm Tue-Thu for Startups and Mon-Wed-Fri for students.

Development Tracks	Student Teams	Startups
Customer Development	Monday-Wednesday-Friday 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm	Tuesday-Thursday 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Product Development
Business Development

Development and Pitching

After the training sessions, the teams will apply their learnings to continually seek their customers, develop their product, and expand their business. They will participate in competitive pitches to gain valuable feedback, inputs and leads. These 7-minute pitches will force them to synthesize where they are in all the innovation development areas and challenge them to move further.

Aside from the training and mentorship, the participants are given seed funding to support them through the different development areas. The amount varies between startups and student teams. The figure below summarizes the seed funding:

Field Evaluation

The finalists – the teams that made it past Market Pitch and Product Pitch – will be visited by the judging committee composed of DOST, AIM, and MAP. The intent is to have a field view of the problem and solution the startups are working on and meet the team making these happen. They will be looking for evidence of customer acceptance and business model viability. The ATBI will be hosting the visit in coordination with the startup.

Demo Day

The final pitch will be face to face and will happen at the Demo Day where five (5) startups and five (5) student teams get to demonstrate their product and pitch their business to potential customers, partners or investors.

Investment grants (less tax) await the teams that make it to the Demo Day. At least ₱100,000 are given to the student teams and ₱200,000 to the startups. Grand winners will get much more — ₱400,000 for the student teams and ₱1,000,000 for the startups! The ATBI will be given ₱50,000 when their incubate is selected for the final round. This ensures continual support to the teams and enrichment of the ATBI program.

Monitoring & Evaluation

After the Demo Day, finalists will submit quarterly reports on the progress of their innovation journey. The regular report covers key performance indicators (KPIs), financial metrics, and other relevant information agreed upon with the finalist, its host ATBI and the Agri-Aqua Innovation Challenge organizers.

With the learnings, mentorship, industry connections, seed funding and investment grants and monitoring and evaluation, the Agri-Aqua Innovation Challenge Program is investing in these teams — the ATBIs, startups, and student teams — to succeed!

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