Paraluman News wins first place at London School of Economics startup competition

Paraluman News has won first place at the London School of Economics (LSE) Generate Fellowship Startup Competition, recognising its mission to make reliable journalism more accessible to multilingual communities across the Philippines.

The LSE Generate Fellowship is LSE Generate’s flagship support programme, backing the most promising ventures from across the LSE Generate community. Each year, up to 48 top startups are selected to join this international, year-round acceleration programme. Fellows will receive year-long bespoke mentoring from Entrepreneurs in Residence, biannual check-ins with the Generate team, free office space, 1:1 pitch coaching, among others.

The youth-centred news platform impressed judges with a pitch focused on widening access to public-interest information in local languages, while supporting the development of Philippine language resources for future AI and civic technologies.

Paraluman News is building a multilingual journalism platform that produces explainers, videos, social media content, and partner-ready story packages.

Launching in English and Tagalog, with capacity across eight languages, the platform aims to make trustworthy news easier to understand, share, and adapt for diverse communities.

The win comes at a time when language access remains a major barrier to information in the Philippines.

Although the country is home to more than 170 languages, much of its public news ecosystem continues to operate primarily in Filipino and Tagalog. Paraluman News seeks to address this gap by producing accessible local-language journalism for young people and communities often excluded from national conversations.

Its work also responds to a growing digital challenge: many Philippine languages, particularly oral and underrepresented languages, remain largely absent from AI systems, datasets, and digital platforms.

By creating high-quality local-language materials, Paraluman News hopes to contribute not only to journalism access, but also to the future of locally built public-interest technologies.

“The judges were incredibly impressed by Paraluman’s pitch, and LSE Generate is delighted to have awarded them first place at this Fellowship Startup Competition,” said Joanna Hamer, Programme Manager of LSE Generate.

“What really stood out was their ability to evidence the value of what they are building, showing both the social importance of their work and the potential to scale. It was a compelling and confident pitch, and we are excited to see what they do next with ongoing support from LSE Generate’s Entrepreneurs in Residence.”

“Winning first place is an incredible affirmation of Paraluman News’ mission: to make reliable journalism available in the languages people actually speak, understand, and share,” said Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, Founder of Paraluman News.

“In a country with more than 170 languages, access to information should not depend on whether you speak English or Tagalog. This recognition from LSE Generate gives us the momentum to build a youth-centred, multilingual newsroom that serves communities today while helping create the local-language resources needed for Philippine AI and public-interest technologies in the future.”

The competition was judged by Emma Parker, Staci Satterwhite, and Angela Wale. Classically Social received second place, while Donar Online and Elebe Circular shared third place.

-Paraluman News