Startup Pawnhero to represent PH in Echelon Asia Summit 2015

DEALSTREETASIA: Startup company Pawnhero will be representing the Philippines in the upcoming Echelon Asia Summit 2015, after winning the main award in the first-ever Echelon Top 100 Philippines Qualifiers.

Held in Makati City on Tuesday, Pawnhero won the “Judges Choice Award”, while fellow local startup FlipTrip got the “People’s Choice Award” in the pitching contest participated in by six other startups, namely: CrowdNet, TalinoEV, Secure Deals, SALt, OptionQuant, and TextSupport.

PawnHero is the first online pawnshop in Southeast Asia, while FlipTrip is a simplified travel planning and booking company that links tourists or travellers to local communities.

The winners were given travel and accommodation packages for their trip to the Echelon Asia Summit 2015, in Singapore on June 23 to 24, being included among the Top 100 startups that will exhibit in the two-day event.

Although FlipTrip was among those shortlisted to go to the Singapore summit, it is yet to be decided if they’ll be chosen alongside PawnHero.

Notable speakers in last Tuesday’s event were Salarium founder and CEO Judah Hirsch, and Altitude Games CEO and co-founder Gabby Dizon.

The judges were Hubba Company Ltd co-founder and CEO Amarit Charoenphan, Future Now Ventures founder John Orrock, and KK Fund founder and general partner Koichi Saito.