Jelawang Capital, Malaysia’s National Fund-of-Funds and a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, announced Friday the appointment of Howard Soh as Chief Executive Officer, effective Oct 1, 2026.

Soh brings two decades of investments, venture building and operating experience, built largely in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia, Jelawang Capital said in a statement.

In Malaysia, he was CEO of Sea Malaysia and Director, Investments at Ekuinas, in addition to founding and leading the early Malaysian operations of Lazada, Zalora and Foodpanda.

He joins Jelawang Capital from LemmaTree, an Asia-based investment firm, where he served as Group Chief Investment Officer. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company and CIMB. Soh holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a LLM from Tsinghua University.

Jelawang Capital Chairman Hisham Hamdan said, “On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Howard Soh as CEO of Jelawang Capital. Howard brings institutional investment experience, venture building and operating leadership in Malaysian technology businesses to an organisation whose programs are now growing.”

“I look forward to seeing him lead the strategic direction of Jelawang Capital and further strengthen its approach to investing through and partnering with fund managers, as it continues to catalyse Malaysia’s venture capital and startup ecosystem,” he added.

Jelawang Capital supports the broader Ekonomi MADANI framework and forms part of Khazanah’s MYR1.0 billion commitment under Khazanah Nasional’s Dana Impak to strengthen Malaysia’s venture capital and startup ecosystem, nurture high-growth entrepreneurs and mobilise greater private and institutional capital into the ecosystem.

Khazanah’s Jelawang Capital backs more than ten startups with over $7.64M capital