Filipina Soul

It’s always uplifting to read about Filipino companies that are doing well in the global market. What more if one is about a Red Herring awardee as one of Asia’s hottest technology startups, AND the first Philippine company on the list? And if that company is near to becoming publicly traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange?

Ahh… Hats off.

And that goes to Exist Software Engineering, soon to be named Exist Global as it brings in P100 million in new venture capital, and doubles its current workforce of 100 developers by next year.

The 100% Filipino company, headed by Winston Damarillo, made headlines last year when he sold a US-based start up called Gluecode Software to IBM for an undisclosed amount. Various estimates put the purchase at around $100 million.

“Exist wrote a good part of the Gluecode software,” Damarillo told Standard Today. “But it’s my fault because I never told people about it. Exist was doing the engineering backend for Gluecode, which was the marketing and architectural design for Gluecode’s product.”

Exist is only five years old, but it has emerged as a premier global software company supporting open source technology. The company serves several VC funded and public company software vendors around the world.

Chairman Winston recalls the company’s earlier days in his Geek-Inc blog.

My co-founders, Junnie, Vince and Willex did not take much salary in the early months and we shared a tiny space in a tiny office. We were pleased that some developers took the risk to join us. Our first American customer was wondering how he could trust the development of the most valued IP in a cramped room set up classroom style using picnic tables.

We were able to build upon our initial interest of attracting the “best in Java” and developing the “best in Open Source” engineering team.

Some of Exist’s softwares include Geronimo, Jetspeed, Agila, and Pluto. Exist has also been engaged in development using pre-built infrastructure which includes Jira, Subversion, Maven, Confluence, Mailman, and JForum.

Visit the Exist Global website here to know more about this all-Pinoy company. You’ll find find they have their “global offices” local to Pasig City and Cebu City.

[source: Manila Standard Today; Exist; Geek-Inc]

Tags: Exist Global, Exist Engineering Software, softare development, open source technology, Red Herring

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