BagoSphere completes its second capital round led by elea Foundation

BagoSphere, a pioneering vocational training social enterprise announces today that it successfully completed its second capital round of funding, which was led by elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization, a Swiss-based philanthropic impact investor supporting social enterprises based in developing countries. elea Foundation is joined by two existing and two new investors who are based in Philippines. They join BagoSphere’s existing impact investors Kickstart Ventures, the wholly-owned Venture Capital subsidiary of Globe Telecom; and Small World Group Incubator in Singapore.

“As a philanthropic impact investor active all across emerging economies, elea Foundation has chosen to support BagoSphere because of its outstanding, sustainable approach in the professional skill building space. Its combination of an effective, scalable training program with micro-loan funding and a focus on building a strong community of students, trainers and graduates already brings great opportunities to underprivileged youths in the Philippines. We believe in the potential of BagoSphere’s model to reach out to many more young people and offer them a first step towards a self-determined future,” said Adrian Ackeret, Associate at elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization and member of BagoSphere’s Board of Advisors.

Operating since January 2013, BagoSphere have graduated 540 graduates, of which about 400 have been hired by BPOs despite 40% of them having zero previous work experience. About 80% of BagoSphere’s students are high school graduates, and about 75% females. Once employed, the graduates receive an average starting salary and performance incentives of around P10,000 per month.

“We help scout and develop invisible talents or talents that companies usually turn away into valuable assets. We have trained over five hundred people, mostly high school graduates and college dropouts. We have had OFWs, farmers, tricycle drivers, former drug addicts, street siomai peddlers, stay-home mothers in our classrooms. We do this to prepare people from all levels of society with skills to thrive in an increasingly digital age. By doing that, I believe we can have a more equitable world.” - Zhihan Lee, Co-founder and CEO.

BagoSphere is a social enterprise created to help people who struggle to find employment a leg up, with an education focused on communication, soft and job-skills necessary in today's market. To do that, BagoSphere offers an affordable and intensive job preparation program that teaches high school graduates and college graduates relevant communication and IT skills in an authentic work setting and gets them hired. The company targets training for call center jobs in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market. The Filipino BPO industry is projected in 2016 to generate 1.3M new jobs, with 17% annual growth. Through stable skilled employment, graduates are able to earn a salary four-times higher than that of unskilled work, raising themselves and their families above the national poverty threshold.

“I am excited to have elea foundation join BagoSphere in its mission in developing immense human potential to address poverty. Their investment, with the other investors will help us expand to new areas and build better immersive learning experiences for more people in the Philippines. We are also happy to be able to leverage on our investors to build a financially sustainable student loan financing model, which is crucial to allow the program to be readily accessible to low-income families.” - Zhihan Lee, Co-founder and CEO.

The flagship program of BagoSphere is ASCEND, a two-month job preparatory course. It is built based on a highly immersive and interactive curriculum that allows the simultaneous learning of the English language and content such as such as Life Skills, Digital Skills and Financial Literacy. On top of that, BagoSphere fosters intrinsic learning by encouraging students to take more risks, try new things, etc. and provides increased access for students through a deferred payment scheme.

BagoSphere is currently operating in the cities of Bago and Bacolod, both in Negros Occidental.

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About elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization

elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization exists to fight absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means, capitalizing on the benefits and opportunities of globalization. As a professional and active investment manager, elea Foundation creates measurable, lasting impact. It supports social enterprises and entrepreneurial projects with a focus on global value chains, new technologies, and professional skill building benefiting people at the base of the pyramid across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The foundation builds and maintains bridges between socially engaged entrepreneurs and philanthropic investors. Beyond a financial investment, elea Foundation supports its partner organizations on their way of becoming financially self-sustainable, by offering coaching and advice on key strategic issues, and by providing access to the elea network.

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Contact Information:

Please email us at zhihan@bagosphere.com