Ateneo de Manila's Avilta Joins Santa Clara University's Bronco Ventures Accelerator
A venture co-founded by a 2026 graduate of Ateneo de Manila University's BS Information Technology Entrepreneurship program has been accepted into the eighth cohort (BVA8) of the Bronco Ventures Accelerator at Santa Clara University, marking an early success of Ateneo's membership in the Jesuit Entrepreneurship Center Alliance (JECA).
Avilta, founded by James Rellera, is an AI operating system that helps e-commerce brands unify their store, ads, inventory, and fulfillment data into a single command center. This helps highlight important information and automate actions like reordering stock ahead of demand, tuning ad spend, and generating new video ads from their top performing creatives. The startup joins five other ventures in BVA8, drawn from across the JECA network:
Mesh - Saint Louis University (Michael Orosz-Fagen)
The Petition Company - Georgetown University (Michael Korvyakov)
Let's Help - Georgetown University (Elaine Chu)
Luminova Beauty - Loyola University Maryland (Charles Engler)
Avilta - Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines (James Rellera)
Task Wizard - Saint Mary's College (Kevin Hanan)
By joining the cohort, all six founders, including Rellera, gain access to the newly launched JECA Fund and its network of investors, a resource Santa Clara's Bronco Venture Accelerator team has described as the beginning of a deeper partnership between Jesuit university communities.
The BVA8 cohort runs from July 9 through October 9, 2026, at Santa Clara's Ciocca Center. Faculty, staff, prospective investors, and the wider Jesuit and Catholic higher education community are invited to attend Demo Day on Friday, October 9, when the six companies will pitch live to active investors in Silicon Valley on Santa Clara's campus.
Avilta's selection follows its earlier Top 3 finish at the IGNITE 2025 Startup World Cup Philippines Regional Final, and reflects the entrepreneurial work of Ateneo's BS ITE program, which the university joined to the JECA network in November 2025. The Ateneo community congratulates James Rellera and the Avilta team, and looks forward to following the venture through BVA8.
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