SMART Communications, Inc. (Smart) and business incubator IdeaSpace Foundation have partnered with US-based AngelHack to launch the Philippine leg of the what is considered the world's biggest coding marathon.
The April-June AngelHack Spring Global Challenge is expected to bring in 6,000 developers in 32 cities in Asia Pacific, North America, South America and Europe.
The winners in each city will enter a three-month accelerator program under which AngelHack will help turn their big idea into a startup.
Winners will then be brought to the United States for mentorship and meetings with key people of Silicon Valley. AngelHack will also help connect the hackathon winners with angel investors worldwide.
The Philippine leg of the competition is scheduled for June 8 to 9. More details will be announced soon.
"There is a Singapore-based venture capitalist interested in investing in Asia Pacific winners. I have a good feeling someone from the Philippines will win," said AngelHack cofounder and chief executive officer Greg Gopman during the Philippine launch of AngelHack at the Jump Experience Center in SM Megamall.
"We see a lot of opportunities in the next few years in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia," he added.
Gopman said he learned about the active developer community in the Philippines when he was recently in Singapore. He said he's excited about the AngelHack partnership with Smart's developer community Smart Developer Network (Smart DevNet) and IdeaSpace.
"It's an ideal partnership because Smart really cares about the developer community.
It's also nice to know that Smart has invested in a foundation (IdeaSpace) that promotes technology entrepreneurship," Gopman said.
Smart DevNet has been organizing and sponsoring numerous hackathons and developer meetups since its launch in mid-2012. IdeaSpace, which is backed by Smart and other companies, recently named the 10 startups it will support through seed funding and mentorship.
"We encourage developers to join the Philippine leg of AngelHack so they can hack their way to the global stage. This event is like the Olympics for engineers and hackers," said IdeaSpace president Earl Valencia.
"Joining hackathons is the opposite of complaining. Instead of ranting about things, we can devise something that can solve our problems. Hackathons like this bring to the fore the country's potential game changers," said Smart developer evangelist Paul Pajo. (PR)
