Pioneer Filipino Crypto Startup Moneybees Founder will be CNN PH’s ‘The Final Pitch’ Investor-Judge

By Nathaniel Cajuday

8Ventures Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jay Ricky Villarante will join the list of investor-judges of Cable News Network (CNN) Philippines’ The Final Pitch, the country’s first and only business reality television (TV) show, starting October 8th.

“We bring innovation into Philippine industries that will improve the quality of products and services that businesses are developing, which in turn will elevate the quality of life of the public.  It is our mission to grow organizations that create and use new technologies to develop profitable businesses around game-changing systems, products, and services,” said Villarante while describing how 8Ventures and its companies share the same vision and goals with The Final Pitch.

Jay Ricky Villarante is the Chairman and CEO of 8Ventures Pte. Ltd. that includes companies such as Paylance Inc., a Bitcoin payments and rewards platform that lets users send money for free and earn bitcoins; Moneybees, a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas-licensed cryptocurrency exchange; and Secuna, a cybersecurity testing platform for SMEs, government agencies, banks, and multinational companies.

“As an innovator that is effective with out-of-the-box solutions to sectors like cryptocurrency and cybersecurity, 8Ventures is well-aware of the emerging challenges that face startup companies and developing investors in these sectors,” informed Villarante.

On the other hand, despite a wide availability of technology products and services, Villarante still believes that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

And as the demand for nation rebuilding through post-pandemic business solutions in the new normal increases, helping and influencing visionaries and leader that will contribute to this need is really an important matter for the sake of the future of different industries.

“Supporting the next generation of innovators and emerging businesses requires a good amount of technical guidance, development of their business models, and funding for them to be successful. With our in-depth knowledge, business savviness, and corporate experience, 8Ventures’ cutting-edge agility can seek, assess, and reward promising start-up founders to make significant progress in the Philippines,” he added.

Recently, Villarente’s Moneybees, a locally-licensed virtual asset service provider, added more outlets as it eyes Php 2 billion transactions to be processed through its trading platform as cryptocurrency transactions in the country are expected to increase this year. (Read More: Moneybees Opens New Outlets, Aims to Process Php 2 Billion Crypto Transactions This Year)

Villarante will join Dave Almirol Jr., Founder and CEO of Multisys Technologies Corporation; Bernard Dy, Mayor of Cauayan City, Isabela; Rosemarie Bosch-Ong, SEVP-Chief Operating Officer of Wilcon Depot; and Dennis Uy, Founder, and CEO of Converge ICT Solutions Inc. as investor-judges.

This will be the seventh season of The Final Pitch, with the theme “virtual edition,” that will showcase a hybrid setup where the investor- judges of the TV show will virtually interact with the contestants who pitch their businesses on-location at The Final Pitch studios.

According to CNN Philippines, The Final Pitch will premiere this month on The Final Pitch YouTube channel with new uploads every Wednesday and Friday, 5:00 in the afternoon, Philippine time, and will be hosted by the show creator John Aguilar.

“We want to make a statement with this season that just because there is a pandemic and a delta variant out there, it doesn’t mean that we should stop conducting businesses, trying to look for solutions, and even making a living. This is also a very aggressive call out for entrepreneurs with solutions for all of the challenges we face and to those who had their businesses particularly adapted to the new normal,” stressed Aguilar.

This article is published on BitPInas: Pioneer Filipino Crypto Startup Moneybees Founder will be CNN PH’s ‘The Final Pitch’ Investor-Judge