DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 January) —Two Davao-based firms will immerse in Silicon Valley, California, for three months this year after besting other companies in the 2011 ON3 Pitching Competition of the international technology hub.
Erriberto Barriga Jr., executive vice president of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-Davao, said on Wednesday in the weekly Club 888 forum at Marco Polo Davao Hotel that among the three winners of the contests are Twidl and RAD Green Solutions.
The two-Davao based firms were grand prize winners last year in the ON3 Pitching Competition organized by the Science and Technology Advisory Council of Silicon Valley. It bested other companies including Segworks Technologies and Easy Clinic Software, both from Davao City.
The winners will be immersing at Plug and Play Tech Center of Silicon Valley in Sonnyville, California.
The center will fund the expenses needed by the companies for their start-up projects. It could fund $9 million or more depending on the need of the firms, as indicated in their project proposals.
Barriga said PicLyf, a product of Twidl, was called by the venture capitalists during the competition as “Facebook on steroids” because the firm’s platform is unique.
PicLyf is a social networking site that features photo blogs and journals with picture editor, webcam and doodle.
Eric Clark Su, co-founder of Twidl, said they wanted Piclyf to become addictive for users. He said they would be also engaging with global blogs by next month and polishing further the product.
The company has been testing the social networking site since two years ago.
“It has been a hard road but we are now ready to market it worldwide,” he said.
RAD Green Solutions, the other winner from Davao, offers an environment-friendly technology dubbed as pyroclave, a no-burn waste processor for medical and infectious wastes.
Lawyer Samuel Matunog, president of Davao Software Industry, said there would be another ON3 Pitching Competition in April. “Hopefully, more Davao-based firms will be given a chance to immerse in Silicon Valley,” he said.
He said the association with ICT-Davao is willing to help start-up companies in preparing for the competition. The companies should be less than three years in the industry, with intellectual property rights and has an idea with a prototype. (MindaNews)
