VISION:
To be a community pillar that empowers and transforms entrepreneurs to cocreate innovative solutions for a regenerative future in the Philippines.
MISSSION:
Upskill entrepreneurs and communities through gender-inclusive incubation and acceleration support to launch and scale profitable and investable Filipino ventures.
About Upgrade:
Upgrade Innolab Incorporated is a non-profit and non-stock organization established in November 2022 with a clear mandate: to build, launch, and accelerate impact-driven, profitable, and scalable businesses in the Philippines, with a strong grounding in Mindanao.
The organization was born from a simple but urgent question: How do we turn ideas into livelihoods, and innovation into lasting regional impact?
Founded initially as a technology business incubator and accelerator in Mindanao, Upgrade Innolab emerged in response to persistent regional challenges. Promising ideas and capable entrepreneurs existed, but pathways to sustainability, scale, and institutional support were fragmented or inaccessible—particularly for founders outside major urban centers.
Early incubation work revealed a deeper systemic issue. Startups rarely fail due to lack of creativity or ambition. They struggle because the systems around them are incomplete: limited access to early capital, weak market linkages, uneven policy implementation, insufficient research commercialization pathways, and a lack of trusted intermediaries connecting founders, government, academia, industry, and investors.
Upgrade Innolab exists to build those bridges.
As a Mindanao-based incubator and accelerator, Upgrade Innolab is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive space for all types of entrepreneurs, regardless of economic status, gender, ethnicity, or political beliefs. Grounded in the principles of social entrepreneurship, the organization aspires to produce enterprises that are not only commercially viable, but also advance social and environmental outcomes.
Beyond direct founder support, Upgrade Innolab actively advocates for the development of a robust, dynamic, and conducive startup ecosystem—initially in Mindanao and progressively across the country—where innovation and entrepreneurship are recognized as viable pathways for personal advancement, career growth, and community development.
In parallel, Upgrade works with industry, academic institutions, and government partners to improve workplace productivity, creativity, efficiency, and innovation through lifelong learning, research and development, and technology transfer. This dual role—as partner to entrepreneurs and collaborator with institutions—positions Upgrade as both a builder of ventures and a shaper of enabling environments.
At its core, Upgrade Innolab is anchored by a fundamental belief: entrepreneurship is a powerful pathway toward a more inclusive society, and innovation only matters when it improves lives at scale and endures beyond individual projects.