Six months ago, Malaysia’s Cradle Fund inked a partnership with Singapore-based VC firm Golden Gate Ventures, pledging to match investments made by the latter up to MYR 500,000 (US$150,000). Today, Cradle executed the same strategy with four more investment partners: Fatfish Ventures, CoEnt Venture Partners, Crystal Horse Investments, and OSK Ventures International. Of the four, the first three are based in Singapore.
This time, though, Cradle will also be taking equity in the companies invested – a first for the government-linked agency. The total fund size will come up to about MYR 11.5 million (US$3.5 million), and Cradle will be investing in three to 10 local tech startups with each partner over the next two years – to the tune of MYR 500,000 (US$150,000) apiece.
“That means that the total matching investment may come up to about MYR 1 million (US$300,000) each, with a likely minimum number of 23 deals [...] which will be a significant boost to the number of venture-funded early stage deals in the country,” explains Nazrin Hassan, CEO of Cradle.
Hassan is hopeful that the partnerships will “further give Malaysian technology start-ups the extra edge as they prepare to compete at a global level.” He also believes that this will spur more foreign investors to take notice of Malaysian startups:
This will be an added advantage for our entrepreneurs who are seeking to raise further funds to support their business growth as they will not have to venture across Malaysian shores to seek for investors. It is also hoped that with a larger pool of discerning foreign investors, it will encourage our Malaysian entrepreneurs to be more global in their approach and market access.
Hassan adds that Cradle’s approach towards co-investment will signal the “gradual reduction of government grants towards supporting early stage start-ups.” In other words, it’s time to wean local startups off government support.
To date, Cradle has funded around 700 Malaysian startups through its CIP Catalyst product development grant and CIP500 product commercialization grant.
See: Malaysia’s new $30M startup fund is for local Malays (mostly)
This post Cradle brings four investors to Malaysia in unconventional partnerships appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Cradle brings four investors to Malaysia in unconventional partnerships
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