Cradle partners Supernewsroom to support over 1,000 startups

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s early stage startup influencer, Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd has sealed an agreement with Newsroom Solutions Sdn Bhd (Supernewsroom) to support over 1,000 startups and partners in their marketing and public relations (PR) efforts.

Supernewsroom is Asia’s first do-it-yourself (DIY) digital PR platform based in Malaysia.

Cradle Group chief executive officer (CEO), Nazrin Hassan, said the collaboration with Supernewsroom would provide a cost-effective solution to gain media traction and publicity as most startups have minimal financial resources.

“With this MoU, startups funded by Cradle will be able to gain access to the entire editorial list and pro bono PR consultancy services by Supernewsroom with a 70 per cent discount or just RM500 per month from the standard fee of RM1,200 per month.

“This is a value-added for them (startups) because they need to know and understand the media, and have proper strategies which could also lead them to potential investors,” said Nazrin at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two parties here yesterday.

He also indicated that the MoU did not involve any fund allocation.

Supernewsroom founder and CEO, Manminder Kaur, said the DIY platform would also enable startups to pitch their stories to ASEAN countries as it offered media database of news outlets, editors, journalists, producers and writers to over 25,000 media contacts from 5,000 media organisations.

The countries include Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

“As a company, which is among Cradle’s CIP (Cradle Investment Programme) 500 grant recipients, we understand the struggle of most startups in terms promoting their products and services, and hope that this collaboration would help them to reach out to the desired media,” she said.

The CIP 500, introduced in October 2009, is the first pure technology seed or commercialisation fund to help Malaysian startup companies with technology- based products or services attain commercialisation.

Supernewsroom was launched in 2015 and has over 100 subscribers currently ranging from startups to multinational corporations.