Sunday, March 13, 2016

Filipino VC funds iRegalo web biz

In a previous Philippine Daily Inquirer interview, Carillion Partners' managing director Gerald Baldivia detailed how the booming Philippine population fuels the country's economic growth.

I first encountered Carillion Partners, a Filipino investment firm that was based in the University of the Philippines Science and Technology Park, during an interview for the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

http://business.inquirer.net/174223/investment-advisor-talks-about-drivers-of-ph-growth



Aside from selling goods online, Carillion Partners state that the iRegalo platform also allows Filipinos worldwide to send electronic gift certificates directly to cellphones.
More recently, I received news from the company that they are funding the iRegalo online business www.iregalo.ph that allows Filipinos to send gifts instead of cash to their families, thus allowing more control over spending.


"We are delighted to have helped make possible the debut of iRegalo, which promises to be a game changer in the Philippines' e-commerce landscape and to profoundly improve the way working Filipinos send their love to the distant families for whom they sacrifice so much," says Carillion Partners Managing Director Mari Gomez.

While the above idea is new to some Filipinos, I actually encountered a few entrepreneurs in the US almost two decades ago who tried this venture. They launched a website where Filipino-Americans could order gifts to send to the Philippines. Orders were processed online and paid by credit card.

I noticed that the main problem why the business did not flourish was due to their failure to deliver the promised goods promptly, thus resulting to complaints. 

At that time, hard to reach areas were just inaccessible. Unfortunately for some of the consumers who paid upfront, their loved ones never received the goods.

With the launch of the new iRegalo platform, consumers hope that concerns on operational efficiency have already been addressed and that an OFW's desire to send even the smallest gift to the farthest corner of the Philippines may finally be achieved.