Growth stage accelerator ScaleUp Malaysia, in partnership with Quest Ventures, Indelible Ventures, and Mranti signalled the culmination of its third cohort with the unveiling of its selection of top startups.

ScaleUp Malaysia said in a statement the cohort which kicked off in August 2021 drew over 200 applications from 26 countries including Malaysia, the United States, Egypt, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.

20 companies were shortlisted to participate in Cohort 3 and placed into separate tracks, giving them exclusive access to Quest Ventures and Indelible Ventures respectively over the course of 16 weeks.

The companies selected by Quest Ventures for co-investment were GuruInnovtif, Open Academy, MadCash, SpareXHub, VireServe, and WaSushi. Indelible Ventures selected Howuku, Kumo and MidWest Composites for co-investment. ScaleUp Malaysia also made direct investments in BizTech Asia and RECQA, alumni from its 2nd Cohort. Quest Ventures and Indelible Ventures look to announce one to two more companies at a later date.

“Congratulations to these amazing entrepreneurs. We applaud the ambitious drive, ingenuity and passion they displayed throughout the programme. At the very core, ScaleUp Malaysia Accelerator aims to nurture businesses, catapulting their growth beyond traditional boundaries to create the next generation of disruptive businesses,” said Xelia Tong, Managing Partner of ScaleUp Malaysia.

Ensuring the companies are well equipped to navigate future challenges, prime them for further growth and tap markets across Southeast Asia, each company will receive up to $60,000 in investment.

Quest Ventures has shown a commitment to developing the Malaysian ecosystem and has grown a portfolio of 16 companies in the nation through its partnership with ScaleUp Malaysia over the last 12 months.

“We truly believe that Malaysia has some of the best entrepreneurs in the region with a flair for innovation and an innate ability to understand cultures in various markets. We are excited to welcome these 6 new companies into our portfolio and work with them to build globally scalable businesses,” said Jeffrey Seah, Partner of Quest Ventures.

Indelible Ventures which launched in September2021 is on the lookout for tech-enabled Malaysian start-ups with business to business (B2B) products that are ready to scale internationally. Indelible has selected 3 companies to invest in from this Cohort.

“The three companies we have selected have demonstrated remarkable sophistication in developing a product with global scale potential and have founders who are passionate to build great innovative businesses. We aim to be a champion of the potential of these entrepreneurs and play our part to elevate them onto investors’ radars,” said Kevin Brockland, Managing Partner of Indelible Ventures.

ScaleUp Malaysia, through their Pegasus model, aims to groom startups in the growth and post-product-market fit stage into scaleup businesses with high revenue growth and increased profitability rates that attract follow-on investments.

Since 2019, it has built a proven track record in helping growth-stage companies secure funding from leading investors. Thus far, over 30 startups have graduated out of the accelerator, collectively raising more than $14 million in capital and one exit.

ScaleUp Malaysia has also opened registration for startups to state their interest to participate in Cohort 4.

Quest Ventures Track:
1. GuruInovatif – a platform that provides complete online resources for teachers’ professional development.
2. MADCash – a FinTech platform that provides micro loans and captures business performance and repayment data of it’s women entrepreneurs while building their credit standing.
3. Open Academy – an education platform that provides real, non-theory based programmes, training, and content by industry practitioners.
4. SpareXHub – a cyber security and information technology (IT) Solutions provider.
5. VireServe – a cyber Security and IT Solutions provider that offers a software as a service (SaaS) platform that can perform a cyber security check, compliance automation and security protection for day-to-day business operations.
6. WA Sushi – a food and beverage Ecommerce company, building “Quality Food-Made For Delivery”.

Indelible Ventures Track:
7. Howuku – an online platform that offers an all-in-one web optimization and analytics solution.
8. Kumo – A SaaS provider for the beauty and medical aesthetics industry.
9. Midwest Composites – a go-to engineered composites partner, which designs and manufactures advanced composites and biobased composites for customers that want to use futuristic materials in their products.

New Investments by ScaleUp Malaysia:
10. RECQA – a knowledge sharing platform for team members to share learnings and other relevant information and contribute to an organization’s collective intelligence.
11. BizTech Asia – A cross-media and marketing B2B platform that enables business to business marketing for its clients via scheduled video and podcast content as well as networking & corporate gaming events.