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Five startups with game-changing digital solutions have made it to the third year of Globe Future Makers (GFM) program , which aims to help build an ecosystem of support for local social innovators who use technology to solve the country’s most challenging social problems. The top five startups include Tagani; Grupo Kalinangan; Antipara; Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI); and LexMeet. They will receive technology support from Globe; tailored capacity building which includes one-on-one mentoring and workshops from industry leaders; access to a strong ecosystem of peers, partners, and potential investors both locally and internationally; and increased brand awareness with potential for regional visibility. “This is an area very close to my heart—trying to help startups in the Philippines. Sometimes, the problem is good ideas just end up becoming a dream that gets trapped in someone’s memory. There are so many things that need to be solved in this country and sometimes, it is only the limit of our imagination on how to solve these problems that keep us where we are,” said Ernest Cu, Globe President and CEO. Tagani is an end-to-end agribusiness matching platform that connects farmers directly to buyers to lessen the impact of volatile market prices. “In the agri-business value chain, there are lots of multiple layers of trade middlemen trying to control the prices and this impacts the livelihood of farmers. Knowing this, we are trying to empower the farmers to become demand-driven entrepreneurs by providing them with training and certification so that they can go straight to local and international buyers,” said Keb Cuevas, Founder and CEO of Tagani. On the other hand, Grupo Kalinangan is a mobile-first government-registered non-stock, non-profit, cultural tech organization which develops and deploys innovative IT solutions, platforms, services and programs to help local government units (LGUs) and other institutions establish and maintain their local cultural inventories for heritage conservation initiatives and protection of vulnerable historic monuments and sites, cultural properties and intangible heritage. “Our organization makes the best use of information technology for cultural heritage management and we see Globe as a vital partner to our mobile-enabled cultural mapping activities and heritage conservation programs,” said Joel Aldor, President and CEO of Grupo Kalinangan. Antipara, an underwater 3D geospatial mapping and analytics company for maritime and environment inspection, has created an algorithm that provides information for marine management, damage assessment and maritime inspection. Laurice Dagum co-founder of Antipara said: “We create maps of anything under the sea and we use artificial intelligence to extract information to identify, for instance, the state of the reefs or possible places for marine action. We also help the maritime industry protect their underwater structures, especially in terms of spillage and contamination while at the same time, maintain marine biodiversity.” Another noteworthy invention is the Hydraulic Ram Pump, a water powered pump manufactured and installed by AIDFI, which brings water from lower elevations to higher elevated villages or farms without the use of electricity or fuel and without pollution. Together with the pump, AIDFI developed an app to monitor the water delivered, technical repairs, money collected and meetings conducted. Another recent innovation that AIDFI adapted is a solar powered-coin operated water kiosk each serving a cluster of households and which releases 20 liters of water for 1 peso. This brings a fairer distribution of water and a better collection for the water association compared to the public tap stands used before. "As a social entrepreneur, I get my fulfillment from seeing the jobs we created and the happy smiles from the beneficiaries who never thought that water would ever flow free in their community or farm. Being one of the winners of the Globe Future Makers is a great honor and recognition and is an energizer for all our staff, management and board to continue the work in far-flung areas,” said Auke Idzenga, Founder and CEO of AIDFI. Lastly, LexMeet is an online legal consultation platform and marketplace which provides legal advice, legal information, legal documents, and even legal remedy to anyone. It has an algorithm that matches the client's legal problem and preference with a lawyer's expertise, location, and language. This mostly benefits overseas Filipino workers, small and medium enterprises, and physical abuse victims. "We at LexMeet together with the lawyers would like to effect social change by advocating legal empowerment and social justice, giving underprivileged Filipinos access to justice in a safe, convenient and affordable way. LexMeet is legal help in a click,” said Atty. Marlon Valderama, President of LexMeet. Judges for this year’s GFM competition are Patch Dulay, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Spark Project, which is also the program’s implementing partner; Yoly Crisanto, Globe Chief Sustainability Officer and SVP for Corporate Communications; Minette Navarrete, President of KickStart Ventures, Inc., a wholly-owned venture capital subsidiary of Globe; Glenn Estrella, Senior Vice President, Globe Digital Ventures, and Mikey Garovillo, Globe Head of Innovations. GFM brings to life Globe Telecom’s sustainability commitment in response to UN Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) No. 9, which calls for investment in infrastructure and innovation to find lasting solutions to both economic and environmental challenges. It is aligned with the social innovation program of the Singtel Group of Companies for Asia Pacific and was developed in order to influence and build a whole ecosystem of social innovators who can help create a positive impact on society with the help of technology. For more about Globe Future Makers 2019, please visit GFM website and Globe Bridging Communities Facebook .