Manila, Philippines –Farm Box, a start-up that encourages individual investment to benefit local farmers, emerged the Hack-it-On grand winner at Globe Business’ virtual hackathon competition, the company’s largest initiative in celebration of the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) National ICT Month. Globe Business announced the winners at a virtual awards ceremony together with their partners, the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), the Philippine Computer Society (PCS), and Globe’s innovative developer community Globe Labs.
The Farm Box team, composed of John Lester Mendoza, John Christopher Francisco, Anjenette Lopez and Felix Veroya, proposed an innovative business plan around the incorporation of Globe Labs’ Charging API, SMS API, and Rewards API to increase customer engagement and retention. Their project was judged the most outstanding invention for its ease of use, market viability and social impact.
“This competition has definitely helped us unlock a new level of creativity in coming up with solutions to uplift our local economy through Globe Business’ API Solutions. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to have worked with key leaders in the IT industry. These innovative solutions will help us engage more people to help our local farmers and growers,” said John Lester Mendoza, Co-Founder and CEO of Farm Box.
With the theme “Hack-It-On. Own the Power of API Innovation,” Globe Business’ month-long event pitted 50 business start-ups from the IT sector in friendly competition. Through the month-long journey, participants confronted key pain points and critical challenges typically faced by our local MSMEs today as they devised groundbreaking solutions that leveraged Globe Labs APIs.
A trusted partner in digital transformation, Globe’s MSME arm held the hackathon competition to recognize the IT and Business Process Management industry as an enabler of micro, small and medium enterprises.
“We recognize the indispensable role that the IT industry plays in driving the competitiveness and continued digital evolution of our local businesses. Through this event, we hope that we have inspired more businesses by demonstrating what can be achieved by leveraging technological solutions to bring their ideas to life and achieve their business objectives,” said Nicola Ebrada, InfoComm Industry Marketing Lead, Globe Business MSME Group.
The virtual event kicked off on June 18 with enablement workshops for participating teams to give them insights and the know-how for their proposed solutions. The teams were given until June 29 to submit their business plan development.
From the 50 teams that participated in the competition, five teams were selected to demonstrate their solutions during the second leg of the competition on July 23: Team Evocodes, Team Sakap, Team Shop Na Dito, and Team Vioxys.
Finalists were selected based on business feasibility, tech viability, social impact and usage of Globe Labs API.
Farm Box, the grand winner in the virtual competition, brought home P200,000 worth of prizes, including a P100,000 cash prize awarded through GCash, tickets to the PSIA Softcon 2021, and 50% discount on the PCS Information Security certification training. As finalists, they also received GMovies vouchers, Globe myBusiness Prepaid Internet Kits, and gift boxes from Globe Business. All the participants received e-certificates of participation.
Relive the exciting Hack-It-On moments by watching the Kick-Off Event and Awards Ceremony on Globe Business’ Facebook page.
To beef up its support to the IT-BPM industry, Globe Business has also launched special offerings for customers who subscribed to Globe Labs API solutions for a minimum contract value. To know more about Globe Business’ enabling offers for local SMEs, visit https://go.mybusinessacademy.ph/ICTMonthOffers.
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