The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) is stepping up efforts to help Philippine businesses use satellite data to improve operations, build new products, and develop services for industries such as transportation, energy, and market research.

The national space agency is expanding its Space Business Innovation Camp (SBIC), a seven-week online mentoring program that teaches startups, organizations, and companies how satellite-derived data can be turned into commercially viable solutions.

Participants learn how to identify problems that can be addressed with satellite data, understand their potential market, and define the value of their proposed products or services.

“We want innovators to see satellite data not as something distant or highly specialized, but as a building block — one that can be combined with existing technologies and local knowledge to solve real problems,” said Gay Jane Perez, Ph.D., acting director general, PhilSA.

PhilSA said satellite information can be combined with other datasets, including demographic and population statistics, transportation data, energy consumption, and socioeconomic information.

For businesses, these combined datasets can be used to spot market opportunities, improve services, streamline operations, and address specific industry needs.

Participants that develop viable business ideas under SBIC will have an opportunity to pitch before a panel of funding and financing institutions, technical experts, and industry practitioners at the end of the program in November.

The program also connects participants with potential research and development partners, startup funding programs, and incubation or acceleration programs that could help move their ideas toward commercialization.

PhilSA sees private-sector participation as an important part of building the Philippines’ domestic space economy. As more companies learn to use satellite data, the agency expects more space-related enterprises to emerge, potentially creating opportunities for investment, innovation, and employment.

PhilSA is also working with industries that could support the local manufacturing and production of technical components used in space assets.

The agency has been developing the broader Philippine space ecosystem through local space assets, wider use of space data, and training Filipino professionals in space technology and related fields.

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