In a milestone achievement for Smile API, our Employer API solution secured first place at the inaugural API Build Lab competition during Geeks on a Beach (GOAB) 2025 held in Mactan, Cebu last October 3. 2025. This victory marks a significant validation of our mission to revolutionize how businesses access verified employment and income data across Asia.
API Innovators
The API Build Lab, organized by Concati—a portfolio company of 917Ventures—in partnership with GOAB, brought together the region's most innovative developers and startups. The competition challenged participants to create commercially viable API solutions that solve real-world business problems.
Our Employer API stood out among the competition, demonstrating how verified employment data can transform financial services delivery. The solution enables businesses to access authenticated employment and income information, supporting faster loan approvals, more accurate credit assessments, and streamlined HR processes.
What Makes the Employer API a Game-Changer
As businesses across Southeast Asia accelerate their digital transformation, access to verified employment data has become critical. Traditional verification methods are slow, manual, and prone to errors. Our Employer API changes this paradigm by:
- Accelerating Decision-Making: Real-time access to employment data reduces verification time from days to seconds
- Enhancing Accuracy: Direct connections to payroll and HR systems eliminate manual data entry errors
- Improving Financial Inclusion: Faster, more reliable verification helps underserved populations access financial services
- Reducing Operational Costs: Automated verification processes significantly lower administrative overhead
This recognition validates our approach to employment data infrastructure and reinforces our position as leaders in the employment data connectivity space.
The Journey to Victory: A Two-Week Sprint
The competition was no walk in the beach (pun intended). Five finalists underwent an intensive two-week virtual sprint from September 19 to October 2, receiving mentorship from industry experts before pitching their projects live at the Cebu event.
Competition Highlights:
🥇 First Place (₱50,000): Employer API by Jan Alvin Pabellon (Smile API)
🥈 First Runner-Up (₱30,000): KIVOE Identity API by Elmer Joaquin
🥉 Second Runner-Up (₱20,000): FRED API by Franczeska Lou Badong
Other impressive finalists included:
- Lendr API by Gabriel Catimbang (CSGUILD)
- Student Inference Engine by Christiansen Hermosilla (Chek Technologies)
Why This Win Matters for the API Economy
APIs are the backbone of modern digital infrastructure. They enable software systems to communicate seamlessly, allowing companies to integrate services like payments, mapping, or—in our case—employment verification without building everything from scratch. This dramatically cuts costs and accelerates innovation.
The API Build Lab competition highlighted how Southeast Asia's developer ecosystem is maturing. With platforms like Concati's open-exchange marketplace, winning APIs will be published and monetized, creating sustainable business models for API providers while giving enterprises access to best-in-class solutions.
This is exactly the kind of ecosystem needed to drive financial inclusion and digital transformation across the region. At Smile API, we've been building toward this vision for years, and this recognition shows we're on the right track.
Geeks on a Beach: More Than Just a Conference
Since its launch in 2013, Geeks on a Beach has evolved into one of Asia's premier platforms connecting startups, investors, and innovators. This year's edition further cemented its role in fostering collaboration and accelerating tech-driven entrepreneurship across the region.
The addition of the API Build Lab competition demonstrates GOAB's commitment to practical innovation—not just talks and panels, but actual building and competition that pushes the industry forward.
What's Next: Monetization and Market Expansion
Winning the API Build Lab means more than prize money and recognition. Our Employer API will now be featured on Concati's marketplace, opening doors to new enterprise customers across Southeast Asia and beyond.
This aligns perfectly with our broader strategy to expand employment data connectivity across emerging markets. As more companies recognize the value of verified employment data for lending, insurance, and HR applications, we're positioned to become the infrastructure layer powering these critical use cases.
The Bigger Picture: Building the Future of Work Data
This win represents more than a single API—it's validation of a vision where employment data flows securely and efficiently across digital ecosystems. Whether you're a fintech lending to gig workers, an insurance company assessing risk, or an HR platform verifying credentials, access to verified employment data is becoming table stakes.
We're building that infrastructure layer, one API call at a time.
Thank You to Our Partners and Supporters
None of this would be possible without the incredible ecosystem supporting innovation in Southeast Asia:
- Concati and 917Ventures for organizing this groundbreaking competition
- Geeks on a Beach for providing a platform where builders can showcase real innovation
- Our mentors during the sprint who provided invaluable guidance
- Most importantly, our customers and partners who trust Smile API with their employment data needs
Join Us on This Journey
Whether you're a developer looking to integrate employment verification into your application, an enterprise seeking better ways to verify credentials, or an investor interested in the future of work data infrastructure, we'd love to connect.
Visit blog.getsmileapi.com to learn more about our API solutions, or reach out to explore partnership opportunities.
Here's to building the future of employment data—one verified connection at a time.
About Smile API
Smile API is Asia's leading employment data platform, connecting businesses to verified employment and income information. Our APIs enable faster, more accurate financial services delivery while improving financial inclusion across emerging markets. Learn more at getsmileapi.com.
Want to integrate verified employment data into your application? Explore our API documentation today.