A new generation of Filipina founders is rewriting what success looks like in the Philippines. They are building startups, leading investment firms, and reaching millions of people online. Many of them are not yet 30.
Women now lead well over half of micro, small, and medium enterprises in the Philippines, .and women have consistently made up a large share of new business owners in the country. Yet all-women founding teams in Southeast Asia raised only about $95 million in equity funding in 2024, roughly 2% of the region’s total, according to a 2025 funding review. Global development institutions agree that unlocking women’s full economic participation could add tens of billions of dollars in output across Asia-Pacific economies, including the Philippines.
The nine women below have built ventures across food content, venture capital, mental health, media, beauty, edtech, digital art, and sustainable agriculture. Each one offers a lesson worth taking seriously.
- Amanda Cua
- Abi Marquez
- Raya Buensuceso
- Ysabel Chua
- Anna Beatriz Suavengco
- Andrea Brillantes
- Steph Naval
- Chia Amisola
- Angela Chen-Delantar
Amanda Cua: A Filipina Founder Who Built Media Authority at 19
Amanda Cua launched BackScoop at 19 during her gap year in 2021 with no degree, no team, and no journalism background. The newsletter covers Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, a gap she noticed firsthand during an internship at Manila-based Avion School (YC W21). She decided to solve the problem herself.
Today, BackScoop has over 10,000 active subscribers including executives and founders, and Amanda has over 40,000 LinkedIn followers. She earned a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia nod in 2024 and a spot on Esquire Philippines’ Trailblazers List, and has since expanded into a podcast and a startup data referral program. For PR and marketing professionals, BackScoop is a reminder that niche media properties, not just mainstream outlets, are now meaningful channels for brand mentions and thought leadership reach.
What you can learn: Consistency in a specific niche, not credentials, built Amanda’s authority. She grew first through her immediate network, then through LinkedIn and word of mouth.
Abi Marquez: Turning Filipino Food Into a Global Brand
Abi Marquez, 24, commands over four million followers with food content that is deliberately unpolished. Messy kitchens, imperfect plating, honest mistakes. A magna cum laude graduate from UP Diliman, she earned her first million pesos through brand deals while still in college. Her accolades include Forbes 30 Under 30 (Class of 2024), a James Beard Award nomination, TikTok’s Creator of the Year for Food, and the People’s Voice Award at the 28th Webby Awards.
Her growth is a real-world demonstration of what creator economy research consistently shows: authentic, community-rooted content outperforms heavily produced formats in organic reach and follower loyalty, particularly on TikTok and YouTube.
What you can learn: Cultural specificity is a competitive advantage, not a limitation. Abi leaned into Filipino food rather than chasing broader trends, and it gave her a globally resonant brand.
Raya Buensuceso: Backing the Next Generation of Filipino Startups
Raya Buensuceso, 29, is Managing Director and employee number one at Kaya Founders, a Philippine early-stage VC firm focused on digital transformation across Southeast Asia. A Princeton economics graduate with a project finance background, she closed Kaya’s US$25 million fund in November 2025, drawing in investors including Pavilion Capital and Bracebridge Capital. She was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 in Finance and Venture Capital and leads the Manila Chapter of SoGal Foundation.
What you can learn: Career pivots carry more transferable skills than they appear to. Raya’s finance background sharpened the due diligence instincts she now applies to startups. “If you’re a Filipino founder solving Filipino problems, seek out mentorship, keep the faith, and be authentic,” she advises.
Ysabel Chua: Growing a Startup Portfolio from Employee Number One
Ysabel Chua, 29, joined Singapore-based Forge Ventures as its very first employee and is now Vice President. She helped grow the firm’s portfolio to 16 companies, including Indonesian supply chain startup Baskit and Singapore-based Prefer. A UP Diliman graduate, she was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 in Finance and Venture Capital.
What you can learn: Joining a fledgling firm when others gravitate toward established names can accelerate your career in ways a conventional path cannot. Ysabel’s trajectory is proof.
Anna Beatriz Suavengco: From a 15 sqm Apartment to 100 Countries
Anna Beatriz Suavengco, 24, built Urban Farmer TV from a 15-square-meter apartment during the COVID-19 lockdown with no budget and no funding. The platform teaches home hydroponics through gamified classes. A single TikTok video of her rooftop garden gained over 700,000 views in two days. It now has over 500,000 followers and 73 million organic views reaching more than 100 countries. A UP Los Baños agriculture graduate and Fulbright Scholar, she joined Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 under Social Impact.
Her story is a textbook example of what our guide on driving social media conversation describes: content that combines authentic personal narrative with genuine expertise consistently outlasts content built purely for virality.
What you can learn: Anna did not just go viral. She had the knowledge to back it up. Substance sustains reach; authenticity starts it.
Andrea Brillantes: Turning a Limitation Into a Unique Brand Identity
Like many Filipino child stars who built careers beyond their early fame, Andrea Brillantes made a deliberate pivot from actress to CEO. She launched Lucky Beauty at 19, drawing from a lifetime of being around makeup on set. The brand turns three in 2026 and has expanded into fragrances (Lucky Potions) and its first physical kiosk.
What makes Lucky Beauty distinctive is Andrea’s congenital anosmia, the inability to smell. Rather than treat this as a setback, she built a beauty line centered entirely on visual appeal, texture, and feel. The products are vegan, cruelty-free, paraben-free, and dermatologist-tested. In a category where brand stories drive loyalty more than product specs, her founding narrative is among the most defensible assets the brand has.
What you can learn: A constraint, reframed, can become your sharpest differentiator. Andrea also shows that a legitimate business built on real product value outlasts fame-as-endorsement.
Steph Naval: A Decade of Lived Experience Behind Every Service
Steph Naval started navigating the Philippine mental healthcare system at age 14. In 2020, she turned that decade of experience into Empath, a social enterprise delivering community-curated mental healthcare through counseling, workshops, and wellness classes for workplaces, schools, and nonprofits. The startup has grown to over 50 team members and 40 partnerships, and secured a P2.1 million DOST grant and a P500,000 InLife Negosyo Challenge grant. Steph has been recognized on Tatler’s Gen T Asia list (2022), received a UN Women Philippines WEPs Award, and now teaches at Ateneo de Manila University.
What you can learn: Lived experience creates understanding that research alone cannot replicate. Steph’s decade inside the system she sought to fix gave Empath a clarity of purpose that is hard to compete with.
Chia Amisola: Starting a Movement at 16 with No Startup Capital
Chia Amisola founded Developh at 16, while still in high school at De La Salle Santiago Zobel in 2016. The nonprofit reclaims technology as a tool for liberation, supporting movements for social justice, digital preservation, and internet art. Chia also launched the Philippine Internet Archive and brought their exhibition KAKAKOMPYUTER MO YAN! to New York’s NEW INC DEMO Festival. They were named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2024 in the Arts category.
What you can learn: You do not need capital or credentials to start. Developh has survived and evolved for nearly a decade on a clear mission alone. Sometimes the most valuable innovation is preservation.
Angela Chen-Delantar: Making Technical Skills Accessible to Everyone
Angela Chen-Delantar co-founded Eskwelabs in 2019 to teach data and AI skills through cohort-based, project-driven learning. The platform delivers a 90% graduate placement rate within 90 days and an average 1.5x salary increase for graduates. With a background in capital markets and impact investing, Angela was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2021 under Social Impact. Eskwelabs has since been recognized as a Kalibrr Top 50 Employer in the Philippines in 2025.
What you can learn: Making something complex genuinely accessible is a business model in itself. Angela also chose market momentum over graduate school at the right moment, and that timing made a difference.
The Bigger Picture: Challenges Filipina Founders Still Face
The achievements above exist alongside persistent structural barriers. Despite making up the majority of MSME owners in the Philippines, women entrepreneurs continue to face significant obstacles in accessing capital, networks, and institutional support, according to an OECD policy review. Gender gaps in lending requirements and collateral standards remain among the most commonly cited barriers to growth for women-led businesses
Nina Terol, co-founder and CEO of FoundHer, points to a “privilege gap” as a root cause: the network and background advantages that open doors in tech far more reliably for some founders than others. Women-led startups are also frequently absent from investment data and tracking studies, which compounds the visibility problem. Learning how to use brand mention monitoring is one practical step founders can take to track where their narrative is gaining traction and where it is not.
The ecosystem is responding. FoundHer held its inaugural summit in October 2025. TheU.S.-funded Academy for Women Entrepreneurs has trained 350 Filipino women since 2020. SoGal Foundation’s Manila Chapter and DTI’s Negosyo Centers continue to expand access.
What These Filipina Founders All Have in Common
Nine founders, nine industries, nine different starting points. The pattern is the same: start before you feel ready, build something specific rather than generic, and treat your background as an asset.
None of them waited for perfect conditions. That is probably the most replicable lesson here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the most notable Filipino women entrepreneurs under 30?
Amanda Cua (BackScoop), Abi Marquez (The Lumpia Queen), Raya Buensuceso (Kaya Founders), Ysabel Chua (Forge Ventures), Anna Beatriz Suavengco (Urban Farmer TV), Andrea Brillantes (Lucky Beauty), Steph Naval (Empath), Chia Amisola (Developh), and Angela Chen-Delantar (Eskwelabs). Several have appeared on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia lists for 2024 and 2025.
What challenges do young Filipina founders face?
The biggest barriers are funding access, limited networks, and low visibility in investment data. All-women founding teams in Southeast Asia received just 2.1% of the region’s total equity funding in 2024, per a 2025 DealStreetAsia report. Women-led businesses are also less likely to appear in investment tracking studies. The support ecosystem is growing, but the gaps remain significant.
How did these founders build their brands without big budgets?
Through expertise, niche focus, and consistent social media presence. Amanda grew BackScoop through LinkedIn and word of mouth. Abi built a following by championing Filipino food authentically. Anna went viral because she had real knowledge behind the content. Steph used government grants instead of equity. Specificity and authenticity consistently outperformed polish.
What sectors are young Filipina founders most active in?
Food and beverage content, venture capital, edtech, mental health, beauty, digital arts and tech advocacy, and sustainable agriculture, reflecting both the breadth of the Philippine market and the diverse backgrounds these founders bring.
How does media coverage affect Filipina founders’ visibility?
Significantly. Coverage in both traditional and digital outlets builds credibility and opens doors. MediaWatch tracks mentions across more than 1,500 Philippine media sources, while SharedView monitors social conversations to help brands measure their share of voice in real time.
Where can Filipina founders find support and funding?
FoundHer, SoGal Foundation’s Manila Chapter, DTI’s Negosyo Centers, and the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs are strong starting points. For early-stage investment, Kaya Founders and Forge Ventures both have Filipina leadership actively backing founders across the region.
Want to track how your brand is covered across Philippine media? Media Meter provides media monitoring and social listening services for Philippine brands, PR agencies, and marketing teams. Request a demo or view our sample reports.
