Capital Markets Malaysia (CMM), an affiliate of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), has on Tuesday launched the nation’s first Corporate Venture Capital (CVC)
Program 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 said in a statement.

According to the statement, CMM’s collaboration with the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) for the inaugural program reinforces the significance of technology and digitalization 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.

“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,” said Dr. Awang Adek Hussin, Executive Chairman of SC, and Chairman of CMM.

According to him, 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.

He said the CVC program 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.

According to the statement, 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 digitalization and innovation.

“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,” said CMM’s General Manager Navina Balasingam.

Meanwhile, she noted the program’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,” she added.

According to the statement, 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.

It said that magnifying Malaysia’s digital economy will grow local talent and industries much needed to support the new economy.

It also said 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.

“MDEC’s collaboration with CMM to roll out this multi-dimensional program is well aligned to the new strategic initiative of Malaysia Digital (MD),” said Ts. Mahadhir Aziz, Chief Executive Officer of MDEC.

“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.

According to Navina, CMM’s goal for the CVC program 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,” she said.

She also noted that over the next two years, the agency aims 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 CVC program is a leadership development program 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.

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