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Month: June 2018

Creating a better investing environment for Malaysia

Posted on by vynn_admin

By Karamjit Singh | Jun 14, 2018

  • Wants to build MVCA into  a regional platform while deepening roots in Malaysia
  • Aims attract more private sector professionals and the money they represent

“I AM getting the easier job as this is the best time to help create a better investing environment for Malaysia,” says Victor Chua (pic), newly elected president of the Malaysian Venture Capital Association or MVCA.

For that he thanks the past leaders of MVCA who all did “fantastic jobs” to lay the foundation for the 31-year old to now inject the vigour and ideas of youth to take the Malaysian venture community to a higher level.

With optimism about the future and confidence in the new direction Malaysians have chosen through the recent general elections, Chua is looking to build MVCA into becoming a regional platform for members while deepening its roots in Malaysia especially through getting more private sector membership into the MVCA.

At present, between 60% to 70% of MVCA’s membership are tied to government-funded VCs and sovereign wealth funds with 30% from corporates. Chua is determined to change this ratio and attract more private sector professionals and the money they represent, into MVCA.

“We want to attract more members from corporates and family offices to join MVCA.” But it’s not just restricted to Malaysian-based members as he wants to drive membership from foreign-based investment professionals as well.

“By being a MVCA member, you get to get closer to the local investing community and at the same time find out more about the local ecosystem and how the public sector works with the private sector,” explains Chua when asked what value non-Malaysia based members could get from MVCA.

Already working on a few initiatives, MVCA will also have some dialogues with industry players to get their views, to better act as the voice of members.

With an eye to building and enhancing the skill set of the next generation of investment professionals, something the Securities Commission of Malaysia and government are supporting, capacity building will be a key initiative for MVCA during Chua’s two-year term, which started last month. “I feel like a minority as there are not that many VC professionals around versus the private equity crowd,” he quips.

That shouldn’t be the case, he feels as “Malaysia has a fantastic environment with promising startups, some of which can scale regionally”. He reels off examples such as e-commerce startup, Hermo which Chua invested in while he was with Gobi Ventures of China; Carsome an online to offline automotive platform with a presence in four countries, which he also invested in while at Gobi and restaurant booking platform, OffPeak, which is also in four countries.

Now running his own fund, Vynn Capital, Chua feels that he is walking the talk through the investment choices he is making. “When I talk about Malaysian investors being regional minded while having strong roots in Malaysia, I feel my investments via Vynn Capital bear this out.”

While his first investment was made in Indonesia, Chua also participated in the March Series B round into Carsome and is currently assessing investments into Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Chua is already looking forward to an anchor event of MVCA’s, the Southeast Asia Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference 2018 (SEAVCPE 2018) to be held on July 31, 2018.

Targeting a 50% headcount increase in participation this year, Chua is bringing in a mix of foreign and local speakers. “We want them to talk about their markets as the focus of the conference is on localisation. The idea is to connect Malaysia to their markets.” The timing is right as Malaysian investors who in the past may have been too focused on the home market are now starting to invest outwards as well, he notes with his own fund but the most recent example.

Among the regional speakers confirmed are Lim Kuo-Yi, managing partner, Monk’s Hill Ventures; Kaspar Hidayat, investment manager, Venturra Capital; Koichi Saito, founder & general partner, KK Fund and Dan I. Siazon, senior vice-president & treasurer, Kickstart Ventures.

Chua’s ambition is to help grow the event into a regional platform for Malaysian entrepreneurs and regional players to come together and share knowledge. “It will be the best platform if you wish to really learn about the Malaysian entrepreneur and funding ecosystems.”

Those interested to attend can email MVCA.

Source

Financing the future

Posted on by vynn_admin

Tell Khailee Ng that Southeast Asia lacks talent when it comes to deep technology and you’ll get more than an earful.

“Some people say the region doesn’t have the talent for deep tech. We say that’s bull****,” Mr. Ng says in a recent interview with Asia Asset Management (AAM). “You just need to look harder. They are there, and they are ready.”

Mr. Ng is the managing partner of 500 Startups, an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010. He oversees its Southeast Asian operations.

The region is seeing an emerging group of start-ups dabbling in deep tech, which encompasses the whole spectrum from artificial intelligence (AI) to drones and robots and augmented reality. One example is Malaysia’s Glueck, which produces computer vision, AI and deep machine learning algorithms to assess responses to stimuli in real-time environments.

“The important part about investing in Southeast Asian deep tech is to know that the relevant companies in the region may not be only receiving investments locally, but from companies in Europe, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India which may target Southeast Asia,” Mr. Ng says.

He sees Singapore becoming a major deep tech player.

“Their universities have international talent that graduate into the ecosystem ready to take their research into commercialisation,” he says. “The government provides all kinds of support to help make this happen.”

But Mr. Ng is not discounting other countries in the region as some of them offer what 500 Startups is looking for, such as investments in space, energy, infrastructure and agriculture.

“Malaysia and Indonesia both have a groundswell of innovation in agriculture and biotechnology that have always existed but are now getting more attention from us and foreign investors,” he says. “These industries are exciting and we’ve also invested in these.”

But Southeast Asia has its fair share of challenges. Victor Chua, founder of Malaysian venture capital firm Vynn Capital, believes the biggest gaps are in talent, as well as the mentality of financial backers.

“Deep tech companies require large amounts of brain power to be able to create something that is marketable and meaningful,” Mr. Chua tells AAM. “At the same time, the backers need to be able to emphasise really long-term objectives, not just immediate monetary value.”

But Mr. Chua is confident Southeast Asia can deliver.

“We are looking at Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, mainly due to the availability of tech talent,” he says. “On top of that, it is due to the amount of training that these countries have received from global tech giants.”

Mr. Ng believes deep tech start-ups may require help to market themselves to a larger audience.

“These companies may need help telling their story to the world and planning their financial strategy. Their sales cycles and funding needs may be quite different from mobile or internet companies,” he says.

According to Mr. Ng, 500 Startups will work towards creating circles of experts in every field.

“We will offer them a forum to learn about the latest innovations in their own field, and in exchange tap into their expertise,” he says. “This creates a brain trust of leading edge thinkers that will ultimately help more entrepreneurs create the future.”

As for Mr. Chua, he envisages turning to solutions for traditional industries.

“We are looking at companies that have a very strong data play to allow for better understanding of these industries,” he says. “From there, we will look at the correlation of success factors which in turn allows us to project a more accurate future for investing.”

Source: Asia Asset Management