ABOUT

Maoi Arroyo is a serial entrepreneur, impact investor, educator, and biologist. In 2018, she became the founder and principal of the Ignite Impact Fund, the first fund focused exclusively on eradicating income and access poverty in the Philippines. Due to the breadth of her experience, she was tapped to be a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on investing to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2020.

Her entrepreneurship career began when she founded Hybridigm Consulting, the premier and pioneering innovation consulting and commercialization firm in the Philippines. In the last 20 years, the firm has developed 5 policies for the Philippine government, and helped in the passage of 2 laws: the Technology Transfer Act of 2009 (equivalent to the US Bayh-Dole Act) and the Innovative Startups Act of 2019. The firm also facilitated over $5M in biotech investments, trained over 25,000 aspiring entrepreneurs, and created 13,500 jobs in the poorest parts of the country. In addition, she has also co-founded a social enterprise that now supplies pasteurized eggs to major hotels and restaurants in the Philippines, a fashion brand that upcycles leather jackets into bags, a media company that promotes independent Filipino films, and a property development firm.

Over the last two decades, Ms. Arroyo has received several honors. She was hailed by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 35 entrepreneurs under 35 in 2006, was the youngest PhilDev Foundation USA honoree for her contributions to national development through science and technology (2010). Ms Arroyo is also a 2011 Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardee – and the only woman in that year. The TOYM is the most prestigious award given to Filipinos under 40 and is presented by the President of the Republic of the Philippines. In 2013 she was one of the DevEx 40 under 40 International Development Leaders, and selected one of the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office's International Leaders in 2014. She was also named as one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders of 2015.

Ms. Arroyo has also been an adjunct professor at the Asian Institute of Management; where she has taught Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the last 16 years. She obtained an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge, and her first degree in Biology (BS) from the University of the Philippines.