Quest Ventures to nurture Malaysian startups in partnership with accelerator

SINGAPORE venture capital firm Quest Ventures has entered an exclusive partnership with accelerator ScaleUp Malaysia to invest in and help with the regional growth of top Malaysian startups.

In a Tuesday statement, Quest Ventures said that the partnership will bring in US$1 million in foreign direct investment to nurture Malaysian startups. Applications for the programme, which is the second intake of ScaleUp Malaysia, start on Tuesday, Sept 8.

The shortlisted 24 startups will begin the accelerator programme in October. Participants must be registered as a Malaysian company and will be shortlisted based on four key criteria: revenue generation, product-market fit, potential of highly scalable products or services with large growth potential, and the possibility of global expansion.

Under the partnership, the programme will invest at least US$60,250 (RM250,000) in up to 12 of these startups. ScaleUp Malaysia previously launched its first cohort in December 2019 with 20 companies, of which 10 received an investment of US$48,283 (RM200,000).

James Tan, managing partner of Quest Ventures, said:"Beyond the traditional investment role of VCs, we see it as our tech ecosystem duty to drive a speedier adoption of the digital economy.

"Our partnership with ScaleUp Malaysia will enable us to support the top tech talent in Malaysia and provide necessary and timely support to power their disruptive businesses to break into the post-pandemic emerging Asia markets."

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Dr V. Sivapalan, senior partner of ScaleUp Malaysia, added: "Our partnership with Quest Ventures will enable our (startups) to quantum-leap their growth, access adjacent markets and unlock a wealth of economic possibilities through value creation, needed now more than ever with our collapsing global economy brought about by Covid-19."