Malaysian enticement for start-ups
Country has ideal ecosystem for young companies to thrive in, says Najib
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has the ideal ecosystem for global tech start-ups to establish themselves and expand into the South-East Asian market, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The Prime Minister said the country’s location in the heart of Asean, as well as its strong infrastructure and reduced cost of doing business, are conducive to the growth of startups.
Najib said the successes of local start-ups, such as digital streaming service iflix, is proof that Malaysia is the right place for such companies to grow.
“The Malaysian tech start-up scene is growing and vibrant.
“There are several made-in-Malaysia regional champions that we see today,” he said when closing the 29th MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting.
“The three-year-old iflix has rolled out its services to 15 countries and now has five million subscribers.
“It has a turnover of US$130mil (RM549mil) and raised US$179mil (RM756mil) in the latest round of funding.
“iflix is proof that Malaysia has the right ecosystem for global tech start-ups to set up and grow in the country.
“We are at the heart of Asean and have a strong infrastructure that is conducive to the growth of startups.”
In his closing remarks, Najib said the Government would introduce a Cloud First strategy in the public sector.
Cloud adoption will enable the Government to rapidly deliver innovative public sector services to the rakyat without incurring high levels of capital expenditure to invest in IT infrastructure, such as datacentres, servers and storage, he said.
This enables the Government to allocate resources for more impactful programmes for the people, he added.
Najib also said that iflix does not own servers or datacentres, and is using the cloud to meet growing demand while keeping capital expenditure low.
Cloud computing basically means storing, accessing and processing data on remote servers over the Internet, without having to own or manage the infrastructure.
Later, Najib attended a ceremony where Swiss-based company builder Mountain Partners announced the setting up of its South-East Asia operations hub in Malaysia.
Under the deal, Mountain Partners will help more than 15 global companies expand here, and will set up a US$100mil (RM420mil) fund to invest in regional tech startups.
Najib also witnessed the signing of a partnership between private equity firm Leonie Hill Capital and Japan-based IP Bridge, which will see Malaysia become the home ground for their venture-building initiative.