In 2013, when the Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute accelerator program first launched, among the motivating reasons KL was selected was the vibrancy of the city’s nascent entrepreneurship community, centered in the fastest-growing region in Malaysia. From this founder-first thesis seven years ago, the FI Kuala Lumpur chapter was born - and the newest 2020 program cohort is currently accepting founder applications!

Geographically accessible to other major Southeast Asian regions, Kuala Lumpur offers many amenities for founders—an affordable cost of living, a multilingual workforce, and access to a deep technical talent pool, making it an ideal place for launching a global startup. The city of KL has a GDP of $172 billion, is home to more than 7.2 million people, and among the many businesses that call Kuala Lumpur home, are hundreds of budding and successful tech companies.

Part of the growth is due to the city’s friendliness towards the entrepreneurs seeking to build businesses there, thanks in part to the support from the Malaysia Tech Entrepreneur program. The program takes less than two months to apply to, and gives entrepreneurs a pass to stay in the country for either one year or five years. Victor Chua, Managing Partner at Vynn Capital, adds,

The startup ecosystem in Malaysia has shown great potential and validation from my experience investing in local startups - with the exit of Hermo, and the success of Carsome in raising one of the largest funding rounds in Malaysia. More investors and large companies should look at the opportunity in Malaysia and extend that to the whole of Southeast Asia.

All cities have their pros and cons, and although Kuala Lampur is a hub for HealthTech, Data Analytic companies, and Smart Cities, its one sore spot according to the annual Startup Genome report (2018) is that the city falls behind the global average for connectedness—or more specifically, the ability to connect to other leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs on the global stage. This, of course, is of great importance for any startup seeking to expand outside of its own city walls, and that’s where the local leaders at Founder Institute really come into play, differentiating themselves as true ecosystem leaders. 

Due to the efforts of Heislyc Loh, SaiKit Ng, Hajime Hotta, and Navin Danapal, dozens of new startups have successfully launched in Kuala Lumpur over the past seven years. This includes the likes of Cidekick, a growing marketplace for part-time gig work; sitterLUV, a platform for finding the best babysitters; and Gameconomy, a virtual items marketplace for gamers.

Community as a Key to Growth

Together with the support of Founder Institute Kuala Lumpur local leaders, KL entrepreneurs are able to leverage the dozens of FI mentors from across Malaysia, to find their path to product/market fit and polish their pre-seed startup into a venture-scalable offering. For founders who complete the core FI program, local leaders work to facilitate introduction to leading KL investors for founders to pursue financing—but the FI relationship continues on.

Heislyc Loh, the local program director who helped launch FI Kuala Lumpur, notes,

Hopefully a programme like this will awaken the hidden talents and buried entrepreneurial desires in them. The skills they have will complement their efforts when they are ready to build something on their own. They just need a training ground and launch pad like the Founder Institute to jumpstart their entrepreneurial career with the right fundamentals.

This is one of the key reasons why a global community, in addition to a local community of like-minded people, is needed for entrepreneurs to grow beyond their borders. Loh adds,

Entrepreneurship can only be guided, and it can't be taught because you are the master of your own destiny.

According to Loh, it takes a resourceful, motivated, and passionate person to make it as a successful entrepreneur. He posits that creating an idea from scratch is as much an attitude as it is becoming a leader. Much of this knowledge was gained along his own journey in building StartupMamak, a 10,000 member strong community of people interested in the tech industry, and where founders can exchange ideas.

Through StartupMamak, along with Loh’s involvement in AngelHack and as a senior lead for innovation development and partnerships in ALA Malayasia, he overcame one previous failed startup, and has been sharing his depth of experience within the wider KL startup community ever since. 

At the time of his first startup, Loh didn’t know where to start, who to talk to, how to be a jack-of-all-trades, or even how to pitch an investor: all common issues for a first-time entrepreneur. It wasn’t until he attended an event, where he found that the best way to meet people and learn from their experience is by organizing a meetup. Through networking between meetups and startup communities, Loh began to connect founders together.

Leading SEA in Technologists, Innovators, & Investors

Though Heislyc Loh was the leader who helped launch Founder Institute into the SEA region, his current co-leaders of the FI Kuala Lumpur program also exemplify the entrepreneurial traits of community connectedness - SaiKit Ng, Navin Danapal, and Hajime Hotta each bring key elements to the Founder Institute accelerator.

Ng is a leader with a financial background, who currently leads Captii Ventures. Having built the investment division of Captii from the ground up, Ng understands not just the fiduciary duties of investing, but also how to find the startups best read to grow. In the past five years, he’s made 17 investments with already one successful exit, which include the likes of Alterra, Computer Guys, SendHelper, and Shoppertise. Prior to making his way into investment, Ng worked with PwC as well as other leading firms.

Danapal, much like Loh, has a background in helping organizations and people connect with one another. He currently holds several leadership directorates – at SOSV, MOX, Chinaccelerator, and Unlock Japan, among other – where he also helps to mold early-stage entrepreneurs. He even helps Amazon scout for new potential startups to be featured through their program. Danapal says,

Building a better future means empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs and scientists to solve the biggest challenges that our world is facing today - addressing global health, sustainable food systems, advanced manufacturing, connectivity in the developing world & beyond. Nearly half of the portfolio companies directly align to the UN’s sustainable development goals and SOSV is a top investor for female founded companies.

Hotta, on the other hand, has a background leading entrepreneurs, but has another very specific specialty, too: artificial intelligence. Holding a related doctorate, Hotta has a goal of building an AI firm with unicorn aspirations.

It’s for this reason that as both an investor and an AI technologist, Hotta wants to make SEA the next successful region for artificial intelligence. These skills, combined, establish him as a leader for the next iteration of ML entrepreneurs in SEA. Hotta notes,

I am firmly against the centralization of innovation components to only several cities in the AI world. I don't want some limited number of places to monopolize everything just like the internet world. Talents should be everywhere, data must be everywhere, and money is supposed to be everywhere.

If you're an entrepreneur currently building a pre-seed stage tech startup to achieve traction or funding goals in Malaysia, apply for the Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute today!

Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.75BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.

See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.