SLU’s Team Victorem, Champion of Philippine Startup Challenge

Saint Louis University’s Team Victorem stayed true to its name as they were declared as the over-all champion of the 5th Philippine Startup Challenge last Friday.

The event, organized by Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), was held at the Grand Xing Imperial Hotel in Iloilo.

QRent by Team Victorem

The winning entry from SLU Baguio is a channel that serves as a platform where people can find items for rent and those who want to post their products can do so. It can be accessed both through mobile phone and desktop. And according to the team, their application, Qrent, is a “safe, secured, and convenient” channel for payment transactions between renters and item owners. 

Team Victorem has emerged as the best among 242 entries received by DICT, where only 30 got to the semifinals. In the end, only 15 teams were chosen to compete for the national competition.

The national competition

These 15 finalists from universities and colleges were given the chance to pitch and defend their their startups in front of business owners and judges.

DICT Undersecretary Monchito B. Ibrahim said that all the teams have undergone rigid training and were filtered out until the best 15 teams emerged.

“We’re very, very glad to see all the ideas that they have come up with and that’s actually making me believe that the future of the Philippines is in good hands,” he added.

As a reward for winning the competition, Team Victorem will automatically be included in the 5-day IdeaSpace Bootcamp this year. They will also be part of the Seeds for the Future, wherein they’ll be going on an all-expense-paid study program in China from Huawei Philippines.

The Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) has also given them PHP200,000.00 to help with their product prototype development. Other winners included in the Top 5 also received the same amount.