AWS aims to support PHL startups through its Activate program

AMAZON Web Services’ (AWS) flagship program Activate aims to boost Filipino startups by helping democratize the cloud and building artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

“We have a substantial number of startups in the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia, and the Philippines is one of our fastest growing countries,” Lakshmi Priya, head of startups in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at AWS, said at a briefing last week.

“We’re thrilled to be supporting startups in the Philippines,” she said, adding they have observed an increase in foundational startups in the country, especially in the e-commerce, logistics, and financial technology sectors.

Since 2013, the AWS Activate program has supported 2,800 startups globally. The program helps startups with credits from $1,000 to $100,000, based on the funding stage, to leverage technology tools.

Ms. Lakshmi said AWS has provided $6 billion in credits and promotional credits to startups.

As of April, AWS made Activate credits redeemable for third-party models on Bedrock, which allows startups to use the credits to build generative AI applications securely.

“AWS Activate has evolved into a one-stop shop for startups, offering comprehensive self-service business and technical content, whether it’s fundraising, legal guidance, technical documentation, and even about latest technologies like generative artificial intelligence,” Ms. Lakshmi said.

AWS in June also announced a $230-million commitment to support startups in building generative AI applications.

Roland de Ros, founder and chief executive officer of social network Kumu, which operates in 50 countries, was previously part of the Activate program. He said Kumu was one of the first startups to raise over $100 million in the country.

“We were saying ‘AWS, we need your help. Here’s the term sheet for a series A [funding round]; this is $4 million. Please help us. Can we get just a little bit more credits just to get to that next phase?,’” Mr. de Ros said.

AWS has helped democratize the cloud — which is viewed by most people to be expensive — and helped Kumu create a strong global community of users, he said.

“Now, we’ve become profitable again. AWS was critical to helping us optimize our costs and increasing the yield of our use of our tech resources so that we could be a sustainable business again,” he added. — A.R.A. Inosante