UBX, the leading open finance platform in the Philippines, is back on CNN Philippines’ The Final Pitch (TPF) with a stronger drive to promote its mission of empowering startups and smaller players with open finance solutions in pursuit of its goal of including everyone.

UBX President & CEO John Januszczak will serve as one of the investor-judges supported by UBX Chief Product Officer Anne Yosuico, and UBX Singapore Country Head Cyrus Cruz who will both serve as members of the investor team on the show’s eighth season, which will be focusing on tech innovations in the business industry.

This year, they are on the lookout for the next big thing in the Philippine startup scene.

Given its established position as the leading open finance platform in the Philippines, UBX is now in a much better position to help smaller and often overlooked players to rise to greater heights, providing insights to startups to survive and thrive in the local scene.

“We genuinely believe that tech is the greatest equalizer. I am so happy to be back at TFP, especially with this edition being the tech edition, which is the driver of financial inclusion, especially in the modern age,” Januszczak shared.

UBX is the practical go-to platform of MSMEs and startups for financial technology solutions. UBX boasts of innovative ventures such as i2i, its banking-as-a-service platform, SeekCap, its open-lending marketplace, BUX, an end-to-end payment solutions platform that allows merchants of all sizes to accept all forms of payment, and Sentro, a free online shop builder that allows you sell online, manage inventory, accept payments and book deliveries.

Aside from this, UBX also has an Innovations Garage Program, a three-month program where businesses would have to work on a concept and search for a business model, the final output being a business plan proposal.

Thanks to UBX, startups will have the resources to develop and refine their ideas, build their prototypes, and test their ideas in the market. Approval by UBX means more funding and eligible participants will move on to the MVP stage.

Before the pandemic hit, 99.5 percent of registered businesses with the Department of Trade and Industry were classified as MSMEs, which generated 62.4 percent of the country’s total employment. With the imposition of the community quarantines, a large portion of this number were forced to shut down their business.

But they quickly bounced back and found avenues to recover. With the support of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Department of Trade and Industry, and other government agencies, smaller businesses started to embrace digital technology and bring their enterprises online.

Supportive of the BSP’s Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap and the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion, UBX also pitched in to assist startups and MSMEs through its different solutions, guiding businesses through true digital transformation.

UBX’s designs are built to affect and persuade, develop agile products that provide stellar customer experience and digitally transform businesses to adapt to the demands of the real world.

Small businesses are guided to focus on the right strategy and solution and become cut-above-the-rest leaders with topnotch, data-driven advice from the most sought-after experts in the field.

Thus, with its comeback to TFP, UBX is in search of likeminded enterprises which will help achieve its goal of promoting financial inclusion in the Philippines. UBX is looking forward to providing more access and more opportunities to empower partners, especially those that make a strong impact on society.

“Tech in general is an enabler of financial inclusion. We’re on the lookout for financial technology, coupled with ruthless product-market fit, that we can help expand or monetize through open finance,” Januszczak said.