ON3 was first held in the Philippines last year to provide a venue where people would be inspired and encouraged to work together to discover, support, and showcase some of the country's talent.

In April, it conducted four regional events in Cebu, Davao, Pangasinan, and Manila participated in by 40 tech-related startups that involved in areas such as consumer Web, Internet, Mobile, Wireless, Social Media, Gaming, Software, Clean Technology, and Biotechnology. Of the number, 15 advanced to the final competition and will compete for the Grand Prize - a three-month immersion in Silicon Valley.

The finalists include GroupJump, iVeamcast, LS, Guestlist.ph, X2Wave, Segworks, Straps, Technominds Easco Inc., Xamun, MiiMove, SpellDial, PayrollHero, Surebooked, Braille G4, and Udrics.

The immersion program will be conducted at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California and involves introduction to at least five top tier venture capital firms and angel investors in Silicon Valley. The cost of living allowance of the grand winners, on the other hand, will be subsidized by the US Department of Science and Technology.

"We've helped many tech startups at Plug and Play over the last six years. Our community of companies have raised in excess of $1 billion. However, none of them are Filipinos . yet. It is my hope that a couple of our deserving startups are able to raise institutional funding and accelerate their success in the global marketplace. At the very least, their three-month immersion experience in Silicon Valley contributes to make them smarter technopreneurs," said Jojo Flores, Co-founder and Vice-President of Plug and Play, and Vice-President at STAC-SV.