Bacolod-bred TAM-IS BioSolutions hailed as Grand Winner of TECH PLANTER in the Philippines 2026
Manila, Philippines – Out of 43 applicants and 9 pitching finalist teams, Leave a Nest Philippines proudly presents the team TAM-IS BioSolutions from Bacolod as the newly hailed Grand Winner of the 10th TECH PLANTER in the Philippines during its TECH PLAN Demo Day event last May 30, 2026 (Saturday) at the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Building Auditorium of the University of Santo Tomas made possible through the university co-organizing team, TOMASInno Center under the University of Santo Tomas.
The participants and partners were graciously welcomed into the University of Santo Tomas space and shared their partnership with Leave a Nest through the welcoming message shared by Asst. Prof. Celso Aban (Manager of TOMASInno Center, the UST’s official Technology Business Incubator). With its momentous decade-long deep tech agenda implementation here in the Philippines, Dr. Yevgeny Aster Dulla (Director of Leave a Nest Philippines) has opened the Demo Day by sharing the foundations of the TECH PLANTER as product of passion of Leave a Nest Japan members after realizing the issue of supporting deep tech startups similar to Euglena Co., Ltd., which Leave a Nest members were involved in its growth, and a quest towards finding the next successful deep-tech ventures from the Philippines and all over the world. Continuing from that, Ms. Jewel Santos (Project Leader of TECH PLANTER in the Philippines 2026) shared the challenge of connecting stories and building a community to solve deep issues, and how the TECH PLANTER program has flourished and aimed to reach more passionate deep tech teams all over the country through regional or vertical-focused implementations.
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| Heartwarming welcoming messages came from both Leave a Nest Philippines and University of Santo Tomas TOMASInno Center sharing the long history of cultivating deep tech researchers from Japan to Southeast Asia through TECH PLANTER and the partnership of these 2 institutions, respectively. Additionally, Ms. Christine Germinal (Keynote Speaker) provided encouraging support and advice to pitching teams. (Top left to bottom right: Asst. Prof. Celso Aban, Dr. Yevgeny Aster Dulla, Ms. Jewel Santos, Ms. Christine Faith Germinal) | |
Before the pitching proper began, Ms. Christine Germinal, the Interim COO and Co-Founder of CirPro Innovations Inc., the TECH PLANTER in the Philippines 2025 Grand Winner, addressed the teams through her keynote speech. She shared her motivations on continuously pursuing the problem of citrus waste in Iloilo and encouraged the presenting teams on how they can utilize the TECH PLANTER program and Leave a Nest programs to grow and find collaborators on their tech-driven passions.
COMMUNITY OF LONG-TERM DEEP TECH SUPPORTERS
The TECH PLANTER in the Philippines Demo Day and program was joined by partners brought by their alignment and commitment to hone the next generation of Filipino science-based solution builders. The main judge panel was composed of 9 judges representing the following Local and Global Partners from the industry, government, legal, and venture capital space: The Law Office of Flores & Ofrin, PLDT Inc. (through PLDT Innolab), Quest Ventures, National Development Company, Focus Systems Corporation, TERAL, Inc., UntroD Capital Asia Pte. Ltd., and Sohbi Kohgei (Phils), Inc. In addition to the judges, Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd. and the Wadhwani Foundation also served as partners to maximize the value provided to invited teams through their own unique support systems and possible partnerships.
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You may refer here for more information about the partners and Demo Day judges
CELEBRATING THE DEEP TECH DECADE PITCHERS AND AWARDEES
The Demo Day was a culmination of the handpicked selected teams that were striving to build solutions under the deep tech agenda themes of Circular Economy & Sustainability, Future of Food & Agriculture, and Clean Energy & Power Innovation. With 7-minute pitch presentations and consequent question and answer, the 9 teams were able to receive important feedback and interesting points through the judge panel experts.
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| Passionate founders and representatives of Finalist teams share their story, issues, and tech-to-business deep tech solutions (left to right: Ms. Cecilia Tale of Greens and Claws, Mr. Stuart Cox of Karnot) | |
Maximizing the Demo Day event, five (5) lightning talk teams were also spotlighted to do brief startup pitches on their issues of interest and technologies they developed for problems varying from support for the deaf and visually-disabled community to food, forest, and energy issues in the country. These teams were invited to pitch together with finalists to accelerate and utilize the platform for finding needed collaborators.
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| Lightning Talk presenters pitched to declare and share the passion on certain deep issues and their current stage in solution building (left to right: Mr. Carl Macias of Team OXILAB and Mr. Roland Benzon of a11y) | |
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All teams were engaged with discussing collaborative points and demonstrating their current technology stages during the Poster Session Core Time |
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You may refer here for more information about all the invited teams to pitch during the milestone 10th TECH PLANTER in the Philippines Demo Day event.
TECH PLANTER IN THE PHILIPPINES 2026 AWARDEES
| WADHWANI FOUNDATION AWARD: Teams AVAMOS μSORB Innovators, H2CORE, Canophex, Padayon, and OXILAB |
| Free Wadhwani Platform Use for Technopreneurship Training |
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| QUEST VENTURES AWARD: Kaizen Aquaventures Inc. |
| Scholarship to Quest Ventures' Venture Capital Accelerated Academy |
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| BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY AWARD (PLDT Innolab): Kaizen Aquaventures Inc. and Team Tila-ok Poultry Management System |
| 1 year use of PLDT Co-working and Laboratory Space, Invitation to Innovation Events, and PLDT Merchandise |
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| FLORES & OFRIN AWARD: Team AVAMOS μSORB Innovators |
| Free Legal Support Services |
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| UNTROD CAPITAL ASIA AWARD: Team TAM-IS BioSolutions |
| 30,000 PHP Cash Prize |
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| TERAL AWARD: Team AVAMOS μSORB Innovators |
| 30,000 PHP Cash Prize |
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| FOCUS SYSTEMS AWARDEE: Team H2CORE |
| 30,000 PHP Cash Prize |
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| LEAVE A NEST AWARDEE: No Space 4 Waste |
| Invitation to Pitch at the TECH PLANTER Asia Final in Malaysia (including roundtrip flights and accommodation for 1 representative) |
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| TECH PLANTER in the Philippines 2026 GRAND WINNER: Team TAM-IS BioSolutions |
| 50,000 PHP Cash Prize and Invitation to Pitch at the TECH PLANTER Asia Final in Malaysia (including roundtrip flights and accommodation for 1 representative) |
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Team TAM-IS BioSolutions received by all the 9 judges receiving the highest marks among the 9 judges and has been the Grand Winner for 10th TECH PLANTER of the Philippines and will be one of the representatives of the Philippine team during the TECH PLANTER Asia Final in Malaysia on August 2026. The TAM-IS BioSolutions under the Co Lab Life Sciences team, who also participated and received Grand Winner in Visayas TECH PLANTER 2024 and has incorporated after Visayas TECH PLANTER 2024 & continuous improvement of R&D facilities.
Concluding the event, Engr. Ronezza Delos Santos (Managing Director of Leave a Nest Philippines) celebrated all the Finalists and Lightning Talk teams’ efforts and successful pitching during the Demo Day. She doubled down on the current move to find new and passionate Philippine deep tech startups to support and invest in, as initially shared by Dr. Dulla in his opening remarks, and hinted at the next opportunities that deep tech startups and partner companies can continue their support with in the Mindanao TECH PLANTER and Visayas TECH PLANTER to be held in the middle and end of the year, respectively.
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| Engr. Ronezza Delos Santos encouraged the teams to decipher their next steps and also shared appreciation to the judges and partners present during the event through giving tokens of appreciation | |
Leave a Nest Philippines is grateful to all the local and global partners who made this project possible and definitely to all the deep tech research teams and startups who pitched, continuously worked and shared their passion for solving social issues through their STEM expertise, and celebrated the #DeepTechDecade.
For companies interested in pioneering in supporting high-potential deep tech startups (research and development focused) or inquiries about TECH PLANTER in the Philippines 2026, you may contact us at [email protected], with attention to Ms. Jewel Santos or Mr. Bryan Foronda.