Five startups have been shortlisted by Cyberview Sdn Bhd, the company leading Cyberjaya’s transformation into a Global Technology Hub to participate in the latest installment of the Cyberview Living Lab Accelerator (CLLA) Programme. The five startups have been working out of CoInnov8, Cyberview’s collaborative smart city space for a little over a month now and will be plugging in four more months of intensive work under the programme.
Managing Director, Mohd Najib Ibrahim says, “The latest installment of our accelerator programme is testament to the success of the past installments. For example, the Demo Day which was held in October of last year saw satisfactory response from ecosystem partners, venture capitalists, and corporate partners towards the last cohort of the programme. In fact, the amount of funds raised by the previous cohort comes up to RM12.28 million.”
According to Najib, Cyberview has been focusing on the areas of Fintech and the Internet of Things (IoT) for the past two installments of the programme, but have decided to also open up to startups in the area of Robotics this time around. This is in tandem with the market’s increased appetite and attention towards these three areas, especially with Robotics being one of the focal points for innovation leaders making strides to build out the vision of Industry 4.0.
“Fintech has seen tremendous growth in the past few years, with global Fintech investments hitting new record levels every year. In the middle of this is blockchain, which is expected to be the future of financial infrastructure. For IoT, the Malaysian market itself holds so much potential – according to the Malaysia National IoT Strategic Roadmap, the initial economic potential for the country in this particular area will be RM9.5 billion GNI creation by 2020 and is expected to experience exponential growth to reach RM42.5 billion in 2025. We have also decided to include Robotics this year as it is one of the most important areas in emerging technology with research stating that the global industrial robotics space is expected to reach USD40 billion by 2020. This solidifies even further how we need to move in line with global and regional trends,” adds Najib.
Finnext Capital is the programme manager, working with Cyberview for the second time to ensure that the startups are equipped with sufficient guidance and resources throughout the five-month period. Finnext Capital is an innovation enabler consulting firm which provides professional advisory to both corporations and startups.
According to Siti Shafinaz Mohd Salim, Acting Head of Technology Hub Development Division, the priority is to provide these startups with problem statements that reflect the needs of Cyberjaya’s main stakeholders and its community. This is to ensure that a solid purpose and direction is set for these startups who already have at least a minimum viable product that can enrich the smart city ecosystem in Cyberjaya, and possibly the nation as a whole.
The accelerator offers participants a programme value up to RM100,000 which comprises resources, facilities, mentorship, networking, market access opportunities, and other assistance.
The five startups participating in the latest installment of the CLLA Programme are Fintech players EPC Blockchain, MEDKAD, and CheQQme; IoT solutions provider Touchless; and Ideasparq Robotics, an automation company which provides robotics solutions.
