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4 PH start-ups headed to Singtel Group Future Makers Regional Programme
FOUR Philippine start-ups will train and vie for financial grants, possible regional investments, and coaching and mentoring support, as they join the 2021 Singtel Group Future Makers Regional Programme this month. The biennial event helps start-ups and enterprises cultivate their social innovation initiatives, and accelerate both business growth and social impact.
The programme is a collaboration among Singtel Group of Mobile Operators, including Advanced Info Services Plc. (Thailand), Airtel (India), Optus (Australia), Singtel (Singapore), Telkomsel (Indonesia), and Globe (Philippines). The programme was established to fulfill Singtel Group’s commitment to social innovation.
“Globe strongly believes in the Filipino talent and providing platforms for start-ups to learn and accelerate their growth will go a long way for these innovators. We continue to be an advocate of the start-up community because they are potential drivers of social and economic growth,” said Yoly G. Crisanto, Globe Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications.
This year, Singtel Group Future Makers was participated in by 20 alumni impact start-ups from each local program to collaborate for potential regional expansion and collaboration supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals such as UN SDG No. 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), UN SDG No. 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and UN SDG No. 10 (Reduce Inequalities).
Through the program, these social innovators can benefit from financial, technical, and marketing assistance to scale up their projects as they present their cases alongside other emerging startups in the region. Thus, Singtel Group Future Makers provides these budding start-ups with capacity-building support, such as coaching and structured workshops. This can help not only sharpen value proposition and pitching capabilities, but also knowledge and insight sharing through mentorship.
Likewise, the start-ups will receive networking opportunities through the Singtel Group Future Makers alumni. Participants will also be encouraged to explore linkages through the Singtel Group Future Makers partner network, including potential and impact investors.
The programme will end with a Shared Value Pitch Day on 15 November where the top start-up from each region will get to pitch from a cash pool of up to S$150,000 to further their shared value collaboration proof of concept with Singtel Group partners. The pitch day will be attended by Singtel Group stakeholders, community partners and impact investors.
“We are glad to have Globe as a long-time partner since the inception of the Singtel Group Future Makers Regional Programme in 2017. We look forward to using this platform to foster regional shared value opportunities with Globe’s nominated start-ups to generate both social impact for the communities we operate in and commercial returns for the business,” said Andrew Buay, Vice President, Group Sustainability, Singtel and Optus.
For this year’s run, the Philippines is represented by EdVenture, KodeGo, BentaTV, and Inon. Before going to the regional competition, the delegation underwent a careful selection process through the Globe Future Makers (GFM) program. GFM aims to help build an ecosystem of support for local social innovators who use technology to solve the country’s most challenging social problems.
Three of the start-ups namely BentaTV, KodeGo, and EdVenture are supported by 917Ventures, Globe’s wholly-owned subsidiary, and the country’s largest corporate venture builder. From online selling, IT careers and e-learning, these start-ups intend to make lives brighter for their users.
BentaTV is a platform that seeks to make online selling easier and more convenient for online “hustlers” in managing their business. KodeGo is a “study now, pay later” coding boot camp that can build IT careers in just 12 weeks while providing companies with top-quality talents. Lastly, EdVenture is an online learning platform that offers solutions to all the school stakeholders, such as online tutoring for kids, online consultation for parents, and online job opportunities for Filipino teachers.
iNON, on the other hand, caught Globe’s attention in 2019, for its mobile app, ISDApp, then considered to have “the most potential to improve life on Earth or in the universe.” The concept bested nearly 1,400 global entries to win one of six top spots at the annual hackathon challenge of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Since GFM’s debut in 2017, 13 different start-ups, locally and internationally, have been given a chance to build their brand and contribute to social development. These unique and pioneering start-ups focused on projects dealing with learning and education, health and well-being, climate change and displacement, and e-commerce.
Globe strongly supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly UN SDG No. 9, which highlights the roles of infrastructure and innovation as crucial drivers of economic growth and development. Globe is committed to upholding the United Nations Global Compact principles and 10 UN SDGs.
To find out more about Singtel Group Future Makers Regional Programme, visit: https://virtualsgfm2021.com/
To know more about Globe’s sustainability initiatives, visit https://www.globe.com.ph/about-us/sustainability.html.
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Isambard-AI, the UK’s most powerful AI supercomputer, goes live
6:39 p.m. July 18, 2025
(NVIDIA PR) The U.K. has officially joined the premier league of global AI infrastructure — and it’s not starting small.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS), leaders today unveiled Isambard-AI, the most powerful AI supercomputer ever built in the U.K.
U.K. Secretary of State Peter Kyle was joined by leaders from across academia, industry and government, including Simon McIntosh-Smith, director of the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, and Neil MacDonald, executive vice president and general manager for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s server business.
“And as we press this switch to activate the UK’s most powerful supercomputer, we are embarking on Britain’s super future where AI contributes towards the delivery of better public services, greater public prosperity, deeper scientific discovery and stronger national security,” Kyle said.
The numbers back up Kyle’s statement:
- 21 exaflops of AI performance
- 5,448 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips
- Set to rank 11th worldwide on the latest TOP500 list of world’s fastest supercomputers
- More than 10x faster than the next-fastest supercomputer in the U.K. More computing power than all other U.K. supercomputers combined
- Ranked fourth globally for energy efficiency
Engineering teams working collaboratively to maneuver and install components within the supercomputer’s data hall, illustrating the complex and coordinated effort behind the build.
Why It Matters
Isambard-AI gives U.K. researchers and businesses a once-in-a-generation leap in computing power. It’s a platform to accelerate breakthroughs in:
- AI-driven drug discovery
- Advanced climate modeling
- Materials science
- Large language models (LLMs) tuned to U.K. languages and laws
Backed by £225 million in government investment and built with NVIDIA, HPE, the University of Bristol and others, Isambard-AI signals a clear ambition: to lead in AI, the U.K. must lead in compute.
Simon McIntosh-Smith, director of the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, with Simon Appleby, AI business lead at HPE.
A glimpse into the project’s strategic planning, showing a screen outlining the ambitious goal of installing multiple supercomputers, including Isambard-AI’s phases, within 12 months.
A Turning Point for UK Science
Named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel — the 19th-century engineer who reshaped Britain with railways, bridges and ships — Isambard-AI brings that same scale of ambition to AI research.
And like Brunel’s projects during his era, it moves fast. Having gone from conception to deployment in just under two years, including the construction of the modular data center in 48 hours, the supercomputer is already running live projects aligned with national priorities.
Early flagship projects include:
- Nightingale AI: A sovereign, multimodal health foundation model trained on National Health Service (NHS) data to support earlier diagnoses and personalized care.
- BritLLM: A U.K.-developed LLM project supporting British languages like Welsh, alongside English, to promote inclusivity and better public service delivery in healthcare, education and public services.
- UCL Cancer Screening AI: Developing the first scalable AI system for prostate cancer detection via MRI, aiming for faster diagnoses and tailored treatments.
- EIMCRYSTAL (University of Liverpool): Using AI to search 68 million chemical combinations to discover greener, more sustainable industrial materials — reducing reliance on rare or toxic inputs.
- EgoAI (University of Bristol): Using AI to analyze recordings from wearable cameras and other smart devices to help people perform tasks better at home. This holds immense promise for assisting dementia patients in the future.
A technician carefully installs a server blade equipped with direct liquid cooling, demonstrating the hands-on precision involved in assembling Isambard-AI’s advanced computing infrastructure.
Built Fast, Built Smart
How do you build a supercomputer in half the usual time?
“We treated the project like a high-performance processor,” said Simon McIntosh-Smith, director at BriCS. “We executed everything in parallel.”
Key to this speed:
- Parallelized project management
- Early procurement of critical hardware, particularly GPUs
- Prefabricated modular data halls shipped in and assembled in days
- Relentless optimization of delivery timelines
- Ground broke in June 2024. By June 2025, the full 5-megawatt system was live: built, tested and running at a global scale.
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Smart launches revamped Online Store, rolls out Postpaid Plan 799
9:43 p.m. July 7, 2025
Mobile services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is making it simpler and faster for more Filipinos to elevate their digital lifestyle with the launch of its revamped Smart Online Store (https://store.smart.com.ph/), a portal where new and existing customers can conveniently explore and securely avail of the latest prepaid and postpaid offers with just a few taps on their smartphone or computer.
As a special introductory offer, the revamped Smart Online Store is the launch platform for Smart Postpaid Plan 799, a SIM-Only Plan that comes with 15 GB open-access data for all sites and apps, 100 GB of 5G data for six months for use in Smart 5G-covered areas, Unlimited Calls and Texts with Landline Calls, and a complimentary Netflix Mobile subscription.
As an added perk for subscribers who will subscribe to the new Smart Postpaid Plan 799, applications made through the Smart Online Store will receive 50% more open access data (7.5 GB) for the first six months.
Easily sign up for a Smart Postpaid Plan 799
New and existing subscribers can conveniently sign up for Smart Postpaid Plan 799 by simply going to https://store.smart.com.ph/ (https://store.smart.com.ph/), selecting “SIM-Only Plans,” and then choosing “Plan 799.”
Customers must then fill out the required personal information to complete their online application.
Initially available only on the Smart Online Store, Smart Postpaid Plan 799 will also be offered to all Smart Stores nationwide soon.
Value-packed offers at your fingertips
Aside from enabling subscribers to avail of Smart Postpaid Plan 799 with just a few clicks, the Smart Online Store also allows customers to bundle a device with their SIM-Only Plan.
Moreover, Smart Online Store’s intuitively designed portal makes it so much easier for customers to discover other value-packed products and services that suit their lifestyle – from data, call, and text offers, SIMs and eSIMs, to the latest smartphones.
The portal also allows users to reload for credits, avail of limited promos, purchase phones bundled with Smart and TNT SIM cards, buy devices under Smart Bro 5G promos, and order Smart and TNT SIM packages.
Lastly, customers can enjoy a wide range of payment options with priority handling for select credit cards.
The revamped Smart Online Store is just one of the many ways that make Smart simply reliable for Filipino mobile users looking to level up their digital lifestyle and enjoy the many benefits of technology.
Visit the Smart Online Store and sign up for a Smart Postpaid Plan 799 now at https://store.smart.com.ph/.#
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Mega Sardines: 50 years of serving nutrient-rich meals, primed to go global
10:22 a.m. June 20, 2025
As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, Mega Prime Foods Inc. reflects on a remarkable journey—one that began with a simple mission to provide affordable, nutritious food to Filipino families.
What started as a humble fishing company has now become one of the most innovative and socially driven food manufacturers in Southeast Asia, producing over 3 million cans of sardines daily from its advanced facilities in Batangas and Zamboanga.
Sardines, long a staple in Filipino households, are among the most nutritionally dense foods in the world—rich in Omega-3 fatty acids for brain and heart health, vitamin B12 for metabolic support, and a host of other essential nutrients like calcium, iron, and selenium. Mega Sardines ensures these health benefits are preserved through its industry-leading “catch to can in 12 hours” process—setting it apart in freshness, quality, and care.
For Chairman and Founder William Tiu Lim, the journey has not been easy. From natural disasters like the devastating 1970s typhoon that destroyed much of their fishing fleet, to political and economic crises, Mega has endured and grown stronger. Through it all, Tiu Lim held fast to three core values: Quality, Innovation, and Malasakit—a uniquely Filipino term meaning selfless concern for others.
“We’ve always aimed for the best possible quality,” said Tiu Lim. “Our fish go from sea to can in just 12 hours, compared to the industry’s usual 1–3 days. That freshness is our edge.”
This commitment to innovation and excellence recently culminated in a global milestone: Mega Sardines was designated a “Superfood” by the Medical Wellness Association (MWA), becoming the first seafood product ever to receive the distinction. The recognition was awarded during Mega’s 50th anniversary celebration by MWA Board Member and faculty member James Michael Lafferty, underscoring the brand’s role in promoting global wellness.
“I was honored to announce Mega Sardines as the world’s first seafood Superfood,” said Lafferty. “It’s a testament to their quality, innovation, and mission to improve health outcomes.”
As the company transitions into its second generation of leadership under President and CEO Michelle Tiu Lim-Chan, the vision for global expansion is clear—but rooted in the same human values that built the brand.
“We are people-first,” said Lim-Chan. “We serve our customers, support our employees, and provide opportunities to improve lives. Growth is not just about geography—it’s about purpose.”
Mega Prime Foods is already expanding its product lines, offering not only sardines but also tuna, mackerel, fruit cocktails, coconut gel, Primo non-alcoholic sparkling juices, and the Jimm’s Coffee functional beverage line.
“Our proudest achievement is our ability to turn compassion into tangible, quality products,” Lim-Chan added. “We are not done yet. The next 50 years will be even more exciting.”
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