KUALA LUMPUR: ScaleUp Malaysia has entered into an exclusive partnership with Quest Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, to invest and scale the regional growth of top Malaysian start-ups. The partnership with Quest Ventures will bring in a Foreign Direct Investment deal worth US$1,000,000 (RM4,150,000) to develop and grow Malaysian start-ups.
According to ScaleUp, in order to qualify for the Cohort 2 programme, scale-ups must be operating on business models that have the propensity to disrupt existing markets or have solutions that are able to navigate future challenges and take advantage of opportunities brought about by the current economic climate.
A total of 24 companies shortlisted from the Cohort 2 applications will begin their accelerator journey in October 2020 before presenting their solutions in front of the Investment Committee at the end of the programme. As part of the partnership, ScaleUp Malaysia Cohort 2, powered by Quest Ventures, will invest at least US$60,250 in up to 12 of these companies.
Meanwhile, Quest Ventures' managing partner, James Tan, said beyond the traditional investment role of VCs, the company sees it as its tech ecosystem duty to drive a speedier adoption of the Digital Economy.
"Our partnership with ScaleUp Malaysia will enable us to support the top tech talent teeming in Malaysia and provide necessary and timely support to power their disruptive businesses to break into the post-pandemic emerging Asia markets," he said.
ScaleUp Malaysia launched its first cohort in December 2019 with 20 companies. Ten of them received an investment of USD$48,283. The accelerator, through their Pegasus model, grooms start-ups in the growth and post product-market fit stage into scaleup businesses with high revenue growth and increased profitability rates that attract follow-on investments.
"In this second cohort, we want to empower solutions that tap into the buy-in of the digital economy and prime them through our rigorous syllabus designed to take local companies to the global stage. Our partnership with Quest Ventures will enable our scaleups to quantum leap their growth, access adjacent markets and unlock a wealth of economic possibilities through value creation, needed now more than ever with our collapsing global economy brought about by Covid-19," said ScaleUp Malaysia's senior partner, Dr V. Sivapalan.
Earlier this year, Quest Ventures announced the first close of its venture capital fund named Asia Fund II after clinching support from Singapore's Pavilion Capital which is a subsidiary of Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd and QazTech Ventures which is a subsidiary of Kazakhstan state investment institution, Baiterek National Managing Holding JSC. The fund will be used to further expand and strengthen its presence within Southeast and Emerging Asia.
Applications for cohort 2 will officially open beginning 8 September 2020. Participants must be registered as a Malaysian company and will be shortlisted based on four key criteria, which are revenue generation; ability to demonstrate product-market fit; potential of highly scalable products or service with large growth potential; and possibility of global expansion.
Go to https://www.scaleup.my/