Launched in February 2021 alongside the Malaysian Startup Ecosystem Roadmap (SUPER) 2021 – 2030, the MYStartup platform was tasked with addressing five but common pain points often faced by various players in the ecosystem. This included funding, talent, innovation, policies & regulations and market environment.
With one of the leading government agencies in the country appointed to run the platform, here’s what has taken place since the platform’s establishment under Cradle’s watch.
Guided by their ‘true north’, the MYStartup is a 10-year plan of structured programmes in which the first two years being 2021 and 2022 were focused on developing the five building blocks for the startup ecosystem development in Malaysia for the next eight years.
For a start, the platform has attracted over 30,000 visitors from around the world and over 2,600 startups have been onboarded onto the platform. Registered startups on the site get to enjoy access to ecosystem proogrammes, networking opportunities with active investors, service poviders and even fellow founders to connect with.
Emerging founders are also offered the opportunity to submit the pitch decks for potential mentorships, investments and partnerships through the site.
While Malaysia is not short of similar initiatives from the private sector, MYStartup aims to complement existing initiatives and play a more empowering role rather than compete with fellow industry players.
Creating 5000 Quality Startups By 2025
Keeping in mind to not produce similar programmes as their fellow agencies, the programmes under MYStartup comprises of four main components with one mission in mind, creating 5000 quality startups by 2025.
The first main component being ideation-based programmes. Staying close to the agency’s core goal of being the main proponent of seed stage startups in the programme, the MYStartup introduced the MYHackathon, the nation’s first national-scale hackathon programme that was first introduced in 2020.
The model of the programme served to address every issue in public services. The first iteration of the programme led to a startup, Neuon AI create a solution to advance Malaysian road maintenance and has attracted attention from Middle East while exhibiting at the Dubai Tech Convention in early 2022.
Fast forward to 2022, the latest installment of the programme continued to revitalise the Malaysian economy by enabling local startups, innovators, software enginners and technologists to provide digital and tech-based solutions to Putrajaya.
In collaboration with MOSTI and our local state ecosystem partners, the final pitch of MYHackathon 2022 Cohort 1 saw five winners receiving startup conditional grants and 12 months 1-on-1 guidance and support to run pilots with respective Ministries and Agencies.
While its nurturing young startups, the teams behind Cradle and MYStartup are also aware of the problems that plaguing startups across the country. Talent gaps are among the common cited challenges faced by founders and with this in mind, the MYStartup under its second main component aims to address the talent gap and build entrepreneurship skills at the same time.
The platform collaborated with Interspoon to offer selected startups with interns from fresh graduates or unemployed Malaysians for digital business services or digital tech roles. While this does not necessarily solve all the talent issues that have been rising, it is a start to fill in digital positions that are in demand.
The third but not final component, the MYStartup Pre-Accelerator was a fundamental initiative for early-stage entrepreneurs to grow their businesses to the next level. The first Cohort received close to 200 registerations and 36 startups made it into the cohort.
Demo day saw the top 5 successfully qualify however the pre-accelerator opened up new opportunities for the programme participants in the form of collaborations, partnerships and recognition, showcasing potential as a stepping stone for startups in the country.
Cohort 2, kick-started in October 2022 and will see 38 startups from nine industry verticalslearning from mentors and peers for the next six months.
The final component of the programme is the MYStartup Accelerator which helps to foster entrepreneurial skills and be investment ready. The initiative had enlisted over 40 world-class mentors and investors to guide 33 selected startups to scale and commercialise their products and services by being investment ready.
September last year saw the programme create another milestone with six startups receiving a total investment of RM1.57 million from 17 angel investors, even before the programme ended.
The upcoming MYStartup Accelerator Cohort 2 will see more investor mentors providing intensive business support for selected startups, aiming to get them ready for investment more quickly and help them create partnerships with local and international corporates for market access.
Raising Awareness Beyond Klang Valley
With an aim to build a more inclusive and conducive ecosystem in the country, the Cradle team had initiated a roadshow through the MYStartup Roadshows. The roadshow explored startups in six different states, which included Johor, Penang, Sarawak, Sabah, Terengganu and Pahang with over 1000 participants.
At respective pitstops, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was exchanged between Cradle and the local ecosystem partners at respective pit-stops.
With an extended network of alliances with local partners in respective states, MYStartup continued to build crucial steps with partners such as Digital Penang, Mranti, Cyberview, airasia academy, and Sabah Creative Economy & Innovative Centre among others.
This allowed the team to better understand different areas of focus and needs that differ from one state to another.
What’s Next?
According to the team behind MYStartup, this year, in line with their main focus of addressing the five pain points highlighted in SUPER, they will double down efforts to create a more cohesive environment by partnering with more corporates to drive corporate participation in the ecosystem.
The programme also hopes to collaborate with local universities to increase talent pool, particularly in the digital tech sector and work closely with regulators to optimise the regulatory environment for new founders to start a business and expand outside of Malaysia.