BusinessToday speaks to Sivavenayakam Velayutham, Co-founder of 25 Startups, the latest incubator in town aiming to connect startups nationwide with investment, mentoring and a soft-landing space to help entrepreneurs launch and growing businesses.
How do you differentiate yourself from other local incubators?
We provide market access facilitation apart from mentoring, funding and visibility. We also connect local startups to our overseas partner ecosystem. Most existing startups only runs government supported accelerator programme and funding facilitation.
Can you share more about your initiatives in growing Penang’s startup ecosystem?
Penang startups ecosystem needs to be connected to Klang Valley and beyond for its startups to be successful. By being part of our 25 Startups community, Startups will be able to access mentors, pilot projects, clients and fundings from other ecosystem where we have presence. We also connect startups to our regional and global partners to support their expansion and growth.
Are you planning on expanding your initiatives beyond Penang? Can you share more on this if there are already existing efforts or plans to do so?
We are currently based in Cyberjaya and Penang and will soon expand its presence into Kuching and Johor Bahru. Our programmes in Cyberjaya will commence Dec 1st.
What are the criteria in a startup that matters to you before you plan on assisting them with expansion?
The ability to scale, has proven track record with some key clients in local market
What potential does Penang has to compete with the likes of an established hub like Cyberjaya or Klang Valley?
Every market is unique, the 25 Startups community model of multicity incubator is to make each market compliment and support the other market’s startups with growth
What challenges do you foresee in moving forward as an incubator?
We are new, need to create more awareness on our incubator programs and upcoming cohort
What more can the government do to assist organisations like 25 Startup in growing the startup ecosystem in Malaysia?
There should be more startup grants for deserving startups and the government should look into creating benefits such as tax rebates for individual startups investors or corporates.
What are some of your future plans?
We are definitely looking to grow beyond Malaysia especially into Indonesia and Vietnam in the next two years. The team is also aiming to support the growth of at least 1000 startups in the next 3 years.
We are constantly also coming up with programmes to assist startups both experienced and young founders to break into new markets and overcome barriers.
