Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle), Malaysia’s focal point agency for startup ecosystem under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), has formalized a strategic collaboration with United Kingdom-based strategy consulting firm, wippd ltd, under the Cradle Innovation Advisory (CIA) initiative.
Cradle said in a statement on Monday that this partnership marks a significant step in strengthening Malaysia’s position as a regional innovation powerhouse by enhancing high-impact advisory support, enabling global expertise exchange, and driving strategic capacity-building across the nation’s innovation ecosystem.
The partnership is designed to accelerate cross-border knowledge transfer and innovation exchange between Malaysia and leading technology hubs including the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
At the center of the collaboration is innovateXchange, a flagship 12-month go-to-market program that supports global innovators seeking to expand into Malaysia and ASEAN.
The program will bring together Cradle’s ecosystem insights and national mandate with wippd’s global strategy and market execution expertise.
Through innovateXchange, international startups will gain structured pathways into Southeast Asia, while Malaysian entrepreneurs will be exposed to cutting-edge innovations from around the world.
Beyond knowledge exchange, the program prioritizes localization and deployment of frontier technologies across industries, fueling new research and development (R&D) activity, commercial partnerships, and high-value innovation opportunities within Malaysia.
The collaboration will broaden funding access for Malaysian technology investors, offer corporates a pipeline of strategic innovations, and create global scaling opportunities for Malaysian startups through wippd’s international network.
At the same time, international technology players will be supported in establishing deeper roots in the region, further strengthening bilateral investment and technology flows.
“With the Cradle Innovation Advisory, our priority is to give Malaysia’s innovation ecosystem access to world-class expertise, strategic guidance, and global opportunities,
“Working with wippd supports this mission by enabling structured technology transfer, stronger corporate innovation, and new commercial pathways for Malaysian founders,” said Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke, Group Chief Executive Officer of Cradle.
“This partnership directly complements Malaysia’s national innovation agenda and reinforces Cradle’s commitment to building a more resilient and future-ready innovation economy,” he added.
Raj Mendhir, Managing Director of wippd, said this collaboration represents far more than a knowledge-sharing exercise.
“It’s about building an innovation bridge between Malaysia and the world’s leading tech ecosystems,
“Through initiatives like innovateXchange, we aim to help global innovators grow in Malaysia while empowering local entrepreneurs to lead regional expansion,” he added.
According to the statement, the partnership underscores Malaysia’s ambitions to become a regional center for research, technology and entrepreneurship.
By combining Cradle’s strong domestic presence with wippd’s global reach, the collaboration aims to drive sustainable innovation growth and strengthen Malaysia’s role in Southeast Asia’s knowledge-based economy.
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