KUALA LUMPUR: Capital Markets Malaysia (CMM), an affiliate of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), today launched the nation’s first corporate venture capital (CVC) programme to advance the domestic venture capital and private equity ecosystem by stimulating corporate investments by larger public-listed companies .
This approach of spurring corporate interest and investments in startups or micro and small-to-medium enterprises (MSME) aims to build confidence in corporate venturing as a potential enabling or innovation strategy to catalyse growth.
CMM’s collaboration with Malaysian Digital Economy Corp (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 improve access to capital, capacity building, as well as business leadership and develop-ment.
SC executive chairman and CMM chairman Datuk Seri Dr Awang Adek Hussin 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 paves the way towards a more sustainable and equitable economy.”
He said that 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, startups to the mature, large-cap PLCs,” he added.
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 intended to transition Malaysia towards a greener economy, develop high-tech industries, and at the same time, accelerate growth of public-listed companies (PLC) by leveraging digitalisation and innovation.
CMM general manager Navina Balasingam said, “Our goal for CVC is twofold: 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.”
Meanwhile, MDEC CEO 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,” he added.
