Capital Markets Malaysia (CMM), an affiliate of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), today (March 21) launched the nation’s first Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) Programme to advance the domestic venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) ecosystem by stimulating corporate investments by larger public listed companies (PLCs). Concurrently, this approach of spurring corporate interest and investments in start-ups or micro and small-to-medium enterprises (MSMEs) aims to build confidence in corporate venturing as a potential enabling or innovation strategy to catalyse growth.
CMM’s collaboration with the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) for the inaugural programme reinforces the significance of technology and digitalisation in spurring economic transformation and progress.
This initiative will also see CMM working alongside relevant agencies and investment entities in Malaysia to bring together and connect verticals in a network that will improve access to capital, capacity building, as well as business leadership and development.
SC Executive Chairman and Chairman of CMM Dato’ Seri Dr. Awang Adek Hussin (pic) said: “The capital market plays a critical role in strengthening and reinforcing our financial structures. As our nation builds back stronger, our Capital Market Masterplan 3 (CMP3) paves the way towards a more sustainable and equitable economy. To facilitate wider population participation in the economy requires enabling infrastructures and networks, especially greater access to capital and funding avenues to facilitate capacity building for scale.
“The CVC programme builds on the existing ecosystem to connect different ecosystem players across private and public markets, from entrepreneurs, start-ups to the mature, large-cap PLCs.”
These developments will generate economic activities that create high-value jobs, business opportunities and talent development, elevating communities in ways that fortify the local economy against future global fallouts. In addition, the structures are also intended to transition Malaysia towards a greener economy, develop high tech industries, and at the same time, accelerate PLC growth by leveraging digitalisation and innovation.
CMM’s General Manager Navina Balasingam added, “Our goal for CVC is two-fold: firstly, to shape a more vibrant private marketplace by attracting corporate investments through the promotion, awareness and eventual familiarity with corporate venturing. Meanwhile, the programme’s capacity building serves to empower PLCs in understanding when and how to leverage CV to fuel strategic growth. There are many success stories of mutually beneficial outcomes where corporates are able to expand their product portfolios to capture new opportunities and scale their businesses, or monetise the investments for other strategic purposes.”
Navina said, “Our goal for the CVC programme is to promote awareness and familiarity with the corporate venturing strategy, the players and ecosystem. Familiarity will build confidence in navigating what seems to be a complex and opaque space. Through this concerted effort to elevate the ecosystem, we are confident that more companies, both public and private, will be able to benefit from the investment and innovation contributed by each party. Over the next two (2) years we aim to collaborate with more strategic partners like MDEC to bring relevant and impactful workshops and networking roundtables to benefit the ecosystem and its players.”
The collaborative efforts with MDEC to strengthen the pathway for companies in the digital industries to gain better access to capital, will lay the foundation for a strong and robust pipeline of growth-focused businesses. Magnifying Malaysia’s digital economy will grow local talent and industries much needed to support the new economy. It is proven that companies or corporates that lean into digital transformation solutions have not only remained resilient but are able to insulate themselves against different challenges to capitalise post-crisis growth opportunities.
On the launch, MDEC Chief Executive Officer Mahadhir Aziz said, “MDEC’s collaboration with CMM to roll out this multi-dimensional programme is well aligned to the new strategic initiative of Malaysia Digital (MD). Networks, access, and connectivity, in every sense of the word, have and will continue to be the cornerstones of success for any business. We applaud the CMM’s efforts to catalyse entrepreneurship and the private investing ecosystem. This will have a large multiplier effect and complements MDEC’s efforts to drive investments, build local tech champions, catalyse the innovation ecosystem, and propagate digital inclusivity.”
The CVC programme is a leadership development programme featuring workshops to promote market development opportunities and capacity building. Each of these two-day workshops will be facilitated by industry leaders and features a high-impact line-up of local and international market players from the VC, PE, digital and technology space.
Topics covered include, ‘Innovation Readiness: 8 Innovation Key Drivers, Executing Corporate Venturing Strategy’, and the Malaysian VC Landscape.
To find out more or to sign up for the programme, please visit our Corporate Venture Capital Programme page at: https://www.capitalmarketsmalaysia.com/corporate-venture-capital-programme/
The SC set up CMM in 2014 to spearhead the local and international positioning as well as profiling of the Malaysian capital market. Funded by the Capital Markets Development Fund, CMM showcases the competitiveness and attractiveness of the various segments of the Malaysian capital market – to promote international participation and enhance opportunities for domestic capital market intermediaries. CMM works to support the advancement of these entities through various initiatives and partnerships, focusing on four key areas: sustainable finance and investing, the Islamic capital market, the digital market, and capital market funding opportunities through the private market.
Notably, CMM’s capacity-building and profiling activities in these are spearheaded by our centres of excellence, i.e. the SIP, the Malaysian Sustainable Finance Initiative and the Centre for Sustainable Corporations, as well as the Elevate programme.
