- 2 weeks ago
Niaga AWANI’s Amzar Alif speaks with Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke and Kellee Kam at the Cradle LIVE! Startup ASEAN Summit 2025, highlighting Malaysia’s leadership in driving ASEAN startup growth and innovation.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Niagawani. I'm Zara Alif and today we are diving into one of Malaysia's
00:14biggest startup milestone of the year, Cradle Life Startup ASEAN Summit 2025. Over three days,
00:22the summit brings together more than 3,000 participants, uniting founders, investors,
00:27and policymakers from across ASEAN under one-boughted scaling startup beyond borders.
00:33And joining me today are two key figures shaping Malaysia's innovation landscape, Norman Matthew
00:38Vanheker, Group Chief Executive Officer of Cradle Funds Senyam Burhat, Malaysian National
00:43Vocal Agency for Early Stage Startup under the Ministry of Scientology, MOSTI. And we have
00:49here Kelly Kam, Group Chief Executive Officer of Lions Bank as the title sponsor for this
00:55year's summit. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, thank you. Thank
00:58you for being here. All right, Norman, Cradle Life Startup ASEAN Summit 2025
01:01marks on the milestone for the Malaysia Startup Ecosystem. How does it feel to see this platform
01:08grow and to have lines on board? First of all, I have to give a really big appreciation to
01:14Kelly for supporting us for this event because this is a really important event for the country
01:19and the region as a whole. As we know, Cradle as a focal point agency for Malaysia Startup
01:24Ecosystem, our vision is to uplift the nation's startup ecosystem to the global ranking. And we see that
01:31this drive is actually shared among the region's startup ecosystem as well. So it becomes our next
01:37logical step to actually work together with other ASEAN member states and lead this ASEAN Startup
01:43initiative and bring the whole region up into the global stage. So Kelly, what drew Alliance Bank to
01:50support this summit as a main partner? Yeah, you know, Alliance Bank, our passion is, it's all about the SMEs,
01:59about supporting business owners, founders. And you know, therein we found a perfect partner in Cradle.
02:05This is not a one-off collaboration. I mean, and we worked together a couple of years on the Bismarck
02:11challenge. Last year, the Accelerator Edition. And I think we, you know, when you find partners
02:17with the same wavelength, with the same passion in wanting to build, provide support for the
02:22innovators, for Malaysia to be seen as a startup hub, we've got to jump right in. You know, and it is our
02:29privilege to be here.
02:30Thank you so much.
02:31Now, Cradle has been instrumental in nurturing early-stage startups. So while Alliance Bank has
02:37also a long champion, SME growth, how do both organizations see this partnership building a
02:44stronger bridge between startup funding and also business scalability?
02:48Well, the whole idea of a startup is not to just remain at early stage because eventually
02:54they do have to grow and scale to become future SMEs. So it becomes a very logical step for us
03:00to actually come together in this flow of growth for our, you know, new companies, new tech
03:07companies especially, you know. And we do see a lot of talent, a lot of potential. So coming
03:12from where we stand, there's a lot of opportunity to actually, and a lot of synergies actually
03:17between Cradle and Alliance Bank actually, to really funnel all our startups coming from Cradle and
03:24onwards towards Alliance to bring them further up.
03:27So Kelly, how about you?
03:30I think Norman put it perfectly. So when we started working together, when you take a look
03:34at it from the founders' viewpoint and not from an organizational standpoint, you see
03:40that the needs for the founders, for the entrepreneurs straddles both in the areas we play in. Cradle
03:47incredible at finding innovation, helping them start that process. At Alliance Bank, we complete
03:54that journey with them, helping them scale up. And together we both are able to provide
03:59the founders, not just the funding at the right time, but the platform to be able to create
04:05awareness of their product as well, to follow them through from startup all the way to scale
04:09up.
04:10So you talk about funding. Funding has always been a major problem for founders. So how
04:16Cradle continue to close this gap, perhaps through his grant or any capacity building programs?
04:23Well, as you know, Cradle is the number one mandate is the focal point agency for the
04:28startup ecosystem. So what does that mean actually? So startup ecosystem is an end-to-end view of
04:34how we look at things from inception all the way to even to IPO listing. So as a focal agency
04:42that manages and coordinates all the actions to develop the entire ecosystem, we need to
04:49look at every step of this growth of every single startup company. So yes, Cradle is very well known
04:56about its early stage grants. But the funding path goes all the way, even after our early stage grants. So we
05:05bear the responsibility to actually to be able to find the gaps and really plug that in with the
05:11right players, be it from public or private side. So hence why collaborations like this is actually
05:17very, very important to build a more robust ecosystem, to be able to push our Malaysian companies
05:23through and through the entire ecosystem.
05:26So Cradle, from the banking perspective, how is Lionbank making the financing more accessible and for
05:33startup that is one to scale up or hunger to scale?
05:38Continuing what Norman was saying about that journey, when we had this discussion, the question
05:44here is, is there not enough liquidity in the market? And the answer is no. So between the players
05:49in the market, folks like Cradle and Alliance Bank, funding is there. What we found is that
05:56platform and sometimes the gap in awareness on how to be able to present it. So for us,
06:02being able to have this partnership work, create the platforms, run programs to also educate
06:08the startups on what funders at different levels want to see and how to pitch their ideas,
06:14we believe will go a long way in being able to close that gap.
06:18So I think this collaboration clearly share the same vision for Malaysia's innovation. How does it align with both Cradle and also Alliance Bank's efforts to position Malaysia as a top 20 global startup ecosystem by
06:312030?
06:32Well, if you know from our startup ecosystem roadmap, the roadmap is a 10 year roadmap beginning from 2021 to 2030. So the vision to become top 20 is in 2030. So that's pretty much about five years left. So it's a tall order. But I wouldn't say it's impossible. Why? Because just last year, we actually managed to break through into the top 20 of the emerging ecosystem.
06:59So we have been below that level for quite some years. And last year, we saw a really big significant shift. So it shows what it gives us that motivation that we can do it. All it is that we just need to amp it up a little bit more, accelerate it a bit more, find the right partners, work with them. I mean, we're going to do some very interesting work. After this, actually, we're going to do more than what we've done before. And you know, I wish I could say more, but I guess we have to leave for later.
07:33And you know, I think I think many in many of our government speeches, Prime Minister mostly, it is a whole of country effort. So we cannot just let any one area try to drive that vision for the country. You see that we are much stronger when we collaborate, providing the platform to be able to drive this initial numbers are already looking good. We are working on on some pretty interesting things. And hopefully we'll be able to speak about it soon as well.
07:51All right. Digitalisation as we are the call for both organisation. So how is Gradual Leveraging Platform like my start-up, start-up ASEAN to connect founders, investors and also partners?
07:58Well, interesting to see that because our approach to ecosystem development is very much leveraged on our digital platform.
08:05So, in 2024, we actually launched the single window platform for the Malaysian ecosystem. So the problem statement of the difficulty to navigate the different different players, you know,
08:26platform for the Malaysian ecosystem so the problem statement of the difficulty
08:32to navigate the different different players you know sources of funding
08:35sources of support in the Malaysian startup ecosystem can now be solved with
08:39the digital platform called my startup so taking this into example we've
08:45actually expanded it and actually developed the startup ASEAN digital
08:50platform so now it's not just the Malaysian ecosystems are connected but
08:55now it's all the ASEAN member states are connected via this digital platform so
09:00very much so we are using digital as a tool and to really accelerate how we do
09:07things how we collaborate within one another. Kelly, Airlines Bank also has
09:13been vocal about its digital first approach so how does this translate to
09:18tangible value for startup and SMEs in Malaysia? I think for us we've put a
09:23significant amount of effort in developing what we call our digital SME
09:27proposition and the whole idea is to make access to funding seamless very very
09:33easy self-serve and also not just to provide that access to funding which can
09:39have in principle approval within a day but also provide them digital tools so
09:43if you're a startup founder you log on to our digital SME capabilities you can even
09:47download a digital SME health check so you know if you upload your six months bank
09:53statements we will be able to even tell you how healthy your cash flow is what
09:58areas you should be looking at and what you can possibly need to focus on over the
10:02next few months so we continually refine our digital tools not just from a
10:07banking perspective but from a standpoint of how can it add value from the
10:11founders perspective so this way we hope to close the gap from information to
10:15financing right finally what we what can we expect next from cradle and lines bank
10:21in empowering startup not just locally but from across ASEAN we do have
10:28something to announce later on today yeah a bit of a sneak peek is that we will be
10:35working on something that is very very impactful that's for sure and innovative yes
10:41but from an ASEAN perspective from a startup ecosystem perspective yes we are
10:47doing more it's one thing to connect the all the ecosystems within the region via
10:54our platform but there's more to do as well because there's a treasure trove
10:58throughout this whole region 700 million you know the number of startups are
11:03numbering more than 10,000 so there's a lot of opportunities there's a lot of
11:08mutual opportunities mutual benefits that we can actually leverage on from one
11:11another maybe last word from Kelly you know it's it's it's important for us that
11:19we found a partner with the same same passion and you're just looking around
11:22the crowd you see the the passion and the vibe you you find from founders
11:26business owners folks with dreams the two of us we hope to continue to work
11:31together last year we did this smart accelerator edition went on to full
11:37feature length movie uploaded into into YouTube and again it's not about us it's
11:43about the founders to profile them to create that awareness so more people know
11:47what what you're doing so stay tuned for next year's edition and hopefully we both
11:53of us coming together we'll create more more future startups
11:57yeah we're looking forward thank you for both Norman and Kelly for your insight and
12:01joining us today that's it all from from me I'm Zara Alif in Niaga Awani
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