Big names in the South-East Asian entrepreneurship circle will convene in Kuala Lumpur on 19-21 March to highlight, analyse and discuss entrepreneurship concerns in the region at Cradle Buzz.
Cradle CEO, Nazrin Hassan, said Cradle Buzz was organised to inspire ASEAN, particularly Malaysian start-ups to take the bold step of breaking into the regional market The event brings together entrepreneurs and investors in the region to share their knowledge, experience and expertise about expanding businesses to a global level.
“Venturing outside our own borders, even into the ASEAN regional marketplace, is a big dream and at the same time, a presumably challenging step to take. But there have been success stories and we’d to see more do the same. We hope both entrepreneurs and investors will gain valuable knowledge from this event and look forward to seeing some strategic partnerships created,” Nazrin said.
He added among the key concerns of entrepreneurs expanding regionally are gaining market access into markets they wish to penetrate; acquiring the right talents that will make their business more relevant at the regional level; and raising the funds necessary to help their business expand.
Nazrin said Cradle aims to address these concerns at Cradle Buzz through insightful and interactive panel sessions and dialogues that will take place at the two-day event.
Among the speakers include 50 Folds founder, Alexander Jarvis, MyTeksi co-founder, Anthony Tan and Animonsta creative chief, Anas Abdul Razak, Mohan Belani, co-founder of e27 and organiser of the annual Echelon technology conference and Leon Fong, general manager of Uber Technologies.
Entrepreneurs will also get to meet the speakers and other investors in a more casual setting at Cradle’s own speed networking event, Chill & Chat.
There, entrepreneurs and investors will have the chance to meet and discuss the prospects of entering into business deals during a 10-minute face-to-face meeting.
“One of the ways Cradle continues to help its entrepreneurs is by introducing them to investors that could possibly help them raise the next series of funds to help grow their business,” Nazrin said.
For more information about Cradle Buzz, follow Cradle’s Facebook Page, www.facebook.com/cradlefundsb and Twitter account, @cradlefundsb.
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About Cradle
Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle), an agency under the Ministry of Finance, Malaysia is the organisation that manages the Cradle Investment Programme. The Ministry of Finance had allocated RM100 million to Cradle for this programme since it began in 2003. The agency was awarded an additional allocation of RM175 million for the 2011-2015 period, under the 10th Malaysia Plan.
Cradle now runs two programmes, the Cradle Investment Programme for funding development and commercialisation of technological ideas and companies, and the Coach and Grow Programme, a market driven programme to train entrepreneurs.
Cradle Investment Programme (CIP)
The Cradle Investment Programme (CIP) is Malaysia’s first development and technology commercialisation funding programme that enables Malaysia’s budding innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs to transform their raw technology-based ideas in the ICT, non-ICT and high growth technology industries into commercially viable ventures or local start-up companies to attain commercialisation. Cradle offers two types of conditional grants – pre-seed (CIP Catalyst & U-CIP Catalyst) and seed (CIP 500). The pre-seed grants offer funding of up to RM150,000 to teams of individuals to develop their innovative technology ideas into prototypes or proof-of-concepts; whilst the seed grant offers funding of up to RM500,000 to help Malaysian start-up companies with innovative technology products/services to attain commercialisation.
Coach and Grow Programme (CGP)
The Coach and Grow Programme is a market-driven programme intended to bring together key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to train existing entrepreneurs to grow their businesses to greater heights, via coaching, networking and showcase events.
Angel Tax Incentive
The Angel Tax Incentive was announced in 2012 at the tabling of the 2013 National Budget by the Prime Minister. Angel Tax Incentive was designed for angel investors to be accorded a tax deduction of up to RM500,000 in the third year (after 2 years) of his or her shareholding in the newly invested companies. Its objective is to stimulate and encourage angel investments from the private sector into technology based start-up companies in Malaysia. This will provide a funding avenue that would allow them to grow.
For more information, visit www.cradle.com.my.
