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2018 Johor Startup Ecosystem Report
Published by: Project Director
StartupJohor ℅ At20s (M) Sdn Bhd Lim Feng
Unit 02-02, Lvl 2, CIMB Leadership Academy,
No. 3, Jalan Medini Utara 1, Medini Iskandar, Editor
79200 Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia Amin Khairuddin
Layout Design
Lim Xiao Qiu
Copyright 2019 At20s (M) Sdn Bhd.
Photography & Videography
Copyright of the image is copyright of each
Lau Chong Jin
respective owner unless stated otherwise.
Survey & Data Compilation
Produced in conjunction with 1st anniversary
Nur Ain Zubir
of IskandarSpace.
Kwong Pei Yee
Lawrence Tan
Lee Sheah Liang
Charmaine Tan
Contributors
The community members of
StartupJohor
Disclaimer :
This report has been prepared for general guidance of the overview of Johor startup ecosystem only,
and does not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this
publication without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or
implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication,
and, to the extent permitted by law.
01
Table of Content Editor’s Note 02 Message from PCEO of Iskandar Investment 03 Berhad Datuk Khairil Anwar Ahmad Message from Chief Executive of IRDA 04 Datuk Ismail Ibrahim Message from Chairman of Johor International 05 Trade, Investment & Utilities Committee, YB Jimmy Puah Wee Tse Message from Community Director, 06 StartupJohor, Lim Feng Introduction to Johor 07 - 13 Coworking Space in Johor 14 - 18 Influencers of Johor Startup Ecosystem 19 - 22 Notable Founders in Our Ecosystem 23 - 65 List of Technology Startup in Johor 66 - 70 Deep Dive into the Johor Startup Ecosystem 71 - 74 Conclusion & Outlook for 2019 75 List of References 76
Editor’s Note
I met Lim Feng and the greater Johor Startup on time, from contributors to those that we featured.
community by a chance meeting on the job. To We hope you will find inspiration and drive to try new
see someone at his age, command the respect of things, take risks and learn, like many of the people we
his peers impressed me and when I saw how he featured in this report have.
conducted his event, I was amazed at what he and the
community had achieved. At that moment, I knew that As this is my last contribution to the team, and maybe
he has the drive and vision to lead a new generation of the last thing I write for awhile, I hope that all of you
entrepreneurs on the right path to success and find this report not only as a valuable resource to learn
greatness. from, but also source of inspiration, to achieve greater
things and the drive to find success, as how I have
Feng, as many call him gave me a chance to join his gained from my time with this wonderful, brilliant and
team and thus our journey together began. Over the welcoming community.
past year, I saw many budding entrepreneurs and
experienced players from the ecosystem make their To Feng and StartupJohor, I can’t thank you enough
dreams into reality, always inspiring me and those for believing in my skills and giving me a chance to
present to strive forward and set new goals. be one of you. I wish the best to you, the team and
the Johor ecosystem, may you reach for the skies and
When he wanted me to write and edit this report, I felt become stars that inspire a new generation of talented
we didn’t really know how big of a task was upon us, individuals that will change our Johor, into a better
but we as a team managed to complete something place.
that we are proud of. On behalf of the editorial team, I
would like to thank all that help us complete this report Thanks, Amin Khairuddin
02
Message:
PCEO of Iskandar
Investment Berhad
Datuk Khairil Anwar Ahmad
Iskandar Space is one of Iskandar Investment Berhad’s accelerated innovations and creativity; and we want
visionary developments. It has been established to to continue inspiring startups, innovators and students
attract business creation, expedite the growth of local to become magnets for investors looking for the Next
entrepreneurs, startups and talents, and to act as a Big Thing.
platform for them to network, collaborate, upskill and
even host events in Medini, Iskandar Puteri. Our aim StartupJohor has been creating waves since its
to make Iskandar Space the most active grassroot inception in 2014, and their technical knowledge and
entrepreneurship centre in Iskandar Malaysia and part influence have been instrumental in the development of
of this city’s placemaking, materialised within its very Iskandar Space. This report speaks volumes about the
first year of operation - thanks to StartupJohor. startup ecosystem in Johor, providing you with useful
insights and a must-have for any strategic roadmap.
Iskandar Space has to-date successfully hosted more
than 100 entrepreneurs and technology-related events Co-working space will continue to change the way we
and registered over 5,000 visitors. This outstanding work, and we hope that StartupJohor and Iskandar
achievement has played an important part in attracting Space will continue to evolve and become the
33 companies and 70 members to operate from epicentre for the best minds in Iskandar Puteri. We
Iskandar Space and has created one of the most trust our budding entrepreneurs will soon establish
energising common ground for entrepreneurs from their empires, and that they will continue to optimise
Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Brunei, Italy, the abundance of resources available in this city.
United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Romania
and Malta. It is also one of our way of supporting the Our role as the catalytic developer of Iskandar Puteri
state government’s mission of attracting RM8 billion has no end, and at times, we build developments
investment to Johor in 2019. and ecosystems ahead of time. We will continue to
stay true to Khazanah Nasional Berhad’s agenda to
Signature events such as IP SMART Startup Festival, develop Iskandar Puteri, and for that, I would like to
IP SMART Hackathon, Innovate Malaysia Design thank StartupJohor, especially Lim Feng for being
Competition, and Fashion AI Hackathon have forward-thinking and an invaluable partner to us.
03
Message:
Chief Executive of IRDA
Datuk Ismail Ibrahim
Assalammualaikum w.b.t and Salam Sejahtera. businesses, taking advantage of the growing number
of people living, working and visiting Iskandar
It gives me great pleasure to congratulate StartupJohor Malaysia.
for producing this Johor Startup Ecosystem Report
2018. I am optimistic that this report will be a valuable This is also where important partners like
guide and an inspiration for those intending to start StartupJohor helps Iskandar Malaysia to realize
a business in Johor, especially in Iskandar Malaysia. its vision to become a ‘Strong & Sustainable
Metropolis of International Standing’. As a result of
Since 2006, the development of Iskandar Malaysia the partnership which began in 2014, we have seen
has always been guided by the Comprehensive several companies such as Hermo & RunCloud where
Development Plan (CDP) and the Circle of local Johorean talents are taking the global market
Sustainability, an all-encompassing development by storm. StartupJohor was also involved in the
principle which devotes equal attention to the 2018’s annual ‘Futuristic Iskandar Malaysia Advisory
three interrelated spheres of economy, social Council’ or FIMAC, bringing different perspective
inclusiveness and environment in its development. on technology startup & innovative companies.
As we continue to draw in investments and I would like to convey my gratitude to StartupJohor,
businesses to power the development of the region, again, for producing this report and for their
we also made sure that the people and the green success in supporting and growing startup
environment in Iskandar Malaysia benefit from this. businesses and entrepreneurs in the state of Johor.
One such example the ‘Kawan Iskandar Malaysia’
(KIM) initiative is how we upskill locals in selected Congratulation, thank you and all the best!
villages around the region to become entrepreneurs
and run eco-tourism and cottage industry related
04
Message:
Chairman of Johor
International Trade,
Investment & Utilities Committee
YB Jimmy Puah Wee Tse
Today, digitalisation and e-commerce are re- the business community in Johor Bahru and I wish
shaping businesses. SMEs need to look at these you all for a better future and happy new year.
new business models and reposition themselves
to seize opportunities from the digital economy. The “Industrial Revolution 4.0” has become the buzzword
Currently, Malaysian SMEs are still at the nascent of the last 5 years and fascinated the world at an
stage of e-commerce, and the Government is unprecedented level. However, it is unfortunate to note
committed to provide the necessary support with an that, until today, the second industrial revolution has yet
aim to enable SMEs to expand their market globally. to be experienced by 17% of the world’s population. In
other words, more than 1.3 billion people still lack access
At the state level, the Johor Government will provide to electricity. This is also true for the third industrial
grants to SMEs, especially microenterprise or revolution, with more than half of the world population
Startups, in order to empower local high value ideas lacking internet access due to poor administration.
and assist them to expand their business beyond our
shores. The Johor State Government will also work The facts keep reminding me that it is truly important
with certain Johor Universities/ academy institutions to for the administrator of a state to ensure that our
commercialise intellectual property that is innovative in manufacturing sector does not fall behind, and stay
order to accelerate market speed to embrace IR 4.0. competitive on the international stage, as technological
advancement does not come without the efforts to
Last but not least, the coordination between pursue it.
Government and Startup Incubators like Iskandar
Space is particularly important to create synergies The year of 2019 will be the year of acceleration for
that will nurture SMEs. Startup Incubator possessed Johor to realise its ambition as an “Advanced Economy
the requisite knowledge and flexibility to facilitate State”. More than 90% of our business community
Micro-enterprise and Startups to utilise all the players are SMEs, and the numbers of these
possible advantages that exist in the market. established by Johor is 98,190 (10.8% in Malaysia).
Therefore, SMEs will undoubtedly playing a vital role
05
With this, I would like to congratulate Iskandar to the development of our business ecology and of
Space for their remarkable achievement for serving course the economy’s growth.
Message from Community
Director, StartupJohor
Lim Feng
“How’s the ecosystem like in JB?” That’s probably the RM5 million scholarship fund for serious learners to take
most frequent question I get at any conference or startup a glimpse of the startup world through programming.
related event. And this question comes from people from We feel privileged to continuously receive support
different ecosystems, some investors, other startups, from our community members, corporate partners
business owners and of course government agencies. and government agencies over the last 5 years.
It is with this continuous support from all of you
We organised at least 3 roundtable for different that keeps us, and me going till today. We hope
stakeholders every year since 2016, in order for them this report will be insightful and actionable for our
to get to know the players in the local ecosystem. stakeholders who care about our growing ecosystem.
Sometimes, departments of the same government
agency. This report is the 1st official study of the local startup
ecosystem in the southern region of Malaysia. We
StartupJohor has been building the startup ecosystem aim to provide an overview to our stakeholders
in the southern region for the past 5 years. Since and any newcomers to the community, to help you
2014, we have conducted various initiatives including understands the uniqueness of the Johor startup
regular meetups, networking sessions, hackathons, scene. We will highlight the stage of our ecosystem, its
pitching sessions, market access as well as mentoring strengths & weakness & actionable recommendations
programmes and tech/startup festivals. We also to bring this ecosystem to the next level.
operate and manage one of the most active coworking
spaces, IskandarSpace located in Iskandar Puteri We are committed to our vision, to produce more
world-class founders, scalable technology ventures
We have gone through a lot, especially in 2018. in Malaysia, starting from Johor. Moving forward,
We’ve launched a Silicon Valley based ideation StartupJohor will continue to expand via local & regional
stage accelerator programme,successfully trained strategic partnerships while extending our community
& graduated 9 high potential founders. We also reach & offering to a wider range of entrepreneurs
organised the first ever startup festival IPSMART in the including non-tech startups, SMEs & the B40 groups.
southern region. We saw more than 500 community
members and speakers from all over South East Asia Thank you.
06
come and take part in this 4 days event. We partnered Lim Feng
up with LEAD Academy, who eventually launched a Community Director | StartupJohor
Introduction
to Johor
3rd Located in the southern part of Peninsular
Most populated state in Malaysia Malaysia, Johor is the country’s southern gateway
connecting it with neighboring Singapore and others
in the region. The name Johor derives from the Arabic
RM111,084 million word ‘Jauhar’ which means precious gems, due to the
GDP of Johor (4th in Malaysia) popularity of the state as a port city in the past. Since
then, Johor has grown into the second largest city in the
peninsular, and with its melting pot of cultures and
RM108 billion heritage has made it a truly precious asset to the
FDI into Iskandar Malaysia country.
Johor Population
3,701,000 Johorian
LEDANG PAGOH
52% MALAY
BAKRI PARIT AYER HITAM KLUANG 30% CHINESE
SULONG
MUAR
SRI
GADING SIMPANG RENGGAM TENGGARA
BATU PAHAT
KOTA TINGGI
8% NON - CITIZEN
KULAI
PONTIAN
TEBRAU
PENGERANG 6% INDIAN
TANGJUNG
PIAI GELANG
PATAH
PASIR
PULAI
GUDANG
JOHOR 1% OTHERS
BAHRU
Source: Laporan Ekonomi Negeri Johor 2017
The Iskandar Development Region and South Johor 14.89 mbps
Economic Region also known as Iskandar Malaysia, Average Internet Download
encompasses the city centre of JB, Iskandar Puteri, Speed in Johor Bahru
the Kulai District, Pasir Gudang as well as South
Pontian making it a major development zone within
the state with an area of 221,634 hectares of land. 3.7million
08
Population in Johor StateCreative 0.5 %
Education 1%
Incentives
Emerging Technologies 1% in Johor
Finance 1%
Goverment 4%
Most of the incentives in the state
Healthcare 2% provide are focused within the
Iskandar Malaysia region and for
Industrial Properties 8%
specific industries, offered by a
Logistics 3% myriad of agencies providing
kickbacks as a step to gain and
Manufacturing 23 %
attract investment into Iskandar
Mixed Development 32 % Malaysia Johor.
Residential Properties 18 %
Utilities 5%
Others 1.5 %
Source: MIDA June 2016 Report & Audited Corporate & Announcement
MDEC MDEC - MSC Status / MSC for Startup
IRDA - IDR Status Companies with qualifying activities under the six promoted service sectors, which are Tour-
ism, Healthcare, Education, Creative, Financial and Logistics can qualify for a cooperate
exemption for ten years or investment tax allowance of 100% for five years.
GBS Iskandar Qualified companies under the GBS Iskandar programme can gain access to a unique layer of
Customised Incentives customised incentives to help subsidise the cost and build a business case for setting up their
GBS operations in Iskandar Puteri.
IRDA - 15% Knowledge Knowledge workers and new expatriates in the promoted sectors who plan to reside or already
worker tax incentive living in Iskandar Malaysia can apply through their employers for their employment income to
be taxed at a preferential flat rate of 15%.
National Talent An ETP initiative that involves a 12 month training programme to develop industry relevant
Enhancement Program skills via partnerships with E&E companies as well as companies who have projects, process-
09
(NTEP) es or products that are focused on green technologies with an aim to increase the employabil-
ity of graduates by providing on the job experience and industry relevant training.Singapor e
Talent in Johor
> 13000 1.67 million
Graduates from Johor workforce in Johor
public university
2nd best A large number of Malaysians are bilingual
(English, Bahasa Melayu), and around 35% are
trilingual (with additional language skills such
English Proficiency in as Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil & others)
Asia
10Recruitment & Academy
The LEAD Academy - Programming / Coding
Founded by Dr Lau Cher Han, LEAD is an technology education institute in Malaysia,
providing courses in Data Science, Full Stack Web Development, Digital Marketing & Business, for
individuals and corporates. LEAD gathered a group of experts with >15 years experience in technology
mentoring to help students get real insights & strategies from the best developers, digital marketers,
IoT experts, and data scientists.
Johor Bahru Programming Class (JBPC) - Programming / Coding
Led by Jason Tian, who came back to his hometown from Taiwan, i-TEA started off as a web
development agency. He eventually setup JBPC, a technology learning provided, specialises in
teaching basic web programming language & development using PHP, HTML, CSS & JS.
JIOS Academy - Digital Marketing
Founded by Stephen Liew, JIOS Academy is an Internet Marketing Academy that provides
practical knowledge of different internet marketing skills such as SEOs, eCommerce, Funnel
Marketing, Copywriting, Video Marketing as well as Social Media Marketing. One of their major
program was the partnership with Alibaba Global Course for e-commerce.
Online Marketing Academy - Digital Marketing
Founded by Johnson Lai, With more than 15 years of experience in Digital Marketing, Online
Marketing Academy (OMA) offers high quality Online Marketing & Social Media Marketing coaching
to Business Professions and Individuals in professional learning environment.
11Accelerator & Incubator
High quality accelerators & incubators play to meet potential stakeholders, corporate entities,
an important role in building a sustainable government agencies and the media, as well as
startup ecosystem. These two entities form other ecosystems that are out there.
a central pillar in the foundations of building
the community of entrepreneurs, connecting Accelerators and incubators have existed in the
founders directly to mentors. These initiatives local ecosystem for at least five years, many
also provides entrepreneurs with technical have come and gone without lasting long enough
know-how, resources, market access & funding to produce good / highly potential companies.
they need to build and cultivate their startup. Many from the past had been accepted into
other programmes including MaGIC Accelerator
The benefits of being in these facilities does not Programme (MAP), Cradle-Proficeo’s Coach &
end there, it provides connectivity for talents Grow Programme (CGP), and 1337 Accelerator.
Introduced in 2018, a Silicon Valley based 14 week intensive accelerator programme
that helps pre-funding entrepreneurs and teams in building an enduring company
by establishing a critical support network consisting of local startup expects who are
invested in their success.
Established in 2013, MaGICX is the strategic partnership between University Te-
knologi Malaysia (UTM) and Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) as a
step to promote and support the development and ecosystem of the creative industry
that focuses on games, gamification and the enrichment of digital content.
Established in 2010, to help researchers within the university’s campus to protect and
commercialise their inventions and innovations.
12Events & Programmes
For this report, we will only include events that are held annually or periodically that are related to the
ecosystem, which includes entrepreneurship, startups & technology. We may have missed out on a
few events due to our preference of event hosted in the English language, but that does not mean
they do not contribute to the local ecosystem as a whole.
Annual Events
Regular Community Events
13Coworking Space in Johor
Shomefice
Infinity 8
The Q (HQ)
Big Infinity 8
The Q Wheel (Business Centre)
Winspace
The Infinity 8
Bunker (Ecommerce Hub)
52ST
FBG
My Cloud Labs
B.e Coworking
Space Men Inn Work
GA Space Melting Pot
Dream Space
The Q Shared Office Mo.Space
Men Inn Work
Value Office Headquarters
Value
The Q
Office
Network V Workspace
The Q
Xpress MSC Cyberport
Train IskandarSpace
Regus
J Hub
Dream Space
Puteri
uteri Harbour
The Q
Big W
Wheel
SeeddB
Bank
Singapore
Coworking Space
Service Office
Commercial Hub
> 35 > 298,000 > 106%
Spaces across Iskandar Square feet in total Annual growth since
Malaysia 2014 15Coworking Space Industry
Co-working spaces are important for the shared, flexible workspaces that provide
startup ecosystem to thrive, from freelancers to partitioned rooms with furniture, with only a
entrepreneurs, these places help cultivate their selected few who really focus on community
ideas and offer them a place to work from, building as well as providing an environment that
network with others and are often flexible for any is conducive for innovation, collaboration and
of your needs or interests. productivity.
With the current growth that the Johor These flexible workplaces provide a viable
ecosystem has seen over the past few years, solution for the oversupply of vacant
more co-working spaces have popped up across commercial property, with many mushrooming
the state, many have even expanded to more over the years in matured or new shop houses,
than one location in order to help the locals in who offer smaller spaces as compared to the few
realising their dreams. who are in commercial buildings and the luxury
of having their own facility with a larger space to
As far as co-working spaces are concerned, many offer.
of those in the city are still focused on being
Total Space by Category Average Space Size by Category
16
Serviced Coworking Commercial Serviced Coworking Commercial
Office Space Hub Office Space HubAt the end of 2018, Johor has a total of 35 spaces, spanning from co-working spaces, shared service
office as well as commercial hubs with an approximate total of 198k sqft of space.
These spaces show an average growth of 106% each year since 2014, with a built up growth rate that
averages at 73.55%. 2018 saw a 230% growth compared to 2016, this indicates that more spaces are
opening up in the city but are smaller in terms of average built up size.
Overview Growth of Industry
15 80000
60000
10
40000
# of Spaces
5
20000 Total Size (Sqft)
Average Size (Sqft)
0 0
1998 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Year Established
Space Distribution by Area
10
8
6
4
2
0
City Centre Iskandar Setia Tropika / Taman Molek / Others
Puteri Impian Emas Mount Austin /
Desa Tebrau
Popular areas where many co-working spaces are located within the state includes several Central
17
Business Districts such as Taman Molek / Tebrau / Mount Austin area, Iskandar Puteri, Johor Bahru
City Centre as well as Setia Tropika and Impian Emas within the Kempas cluster.Average Size of Each Spaces
1001 - 15000 0 - 3000
2.9 % 42.9 %
15
5001 - 7500
8.6 % 3
15001 - 20000 3
8.6 %
7501 - 10000 4
11.4 %
9
3001 - 5000
25.7 %
We also saw an average growth of 56% for the prices on hot desks as well as a 35% increase for
dedicated desks in various spaces across town who offer open working space plans.
While there is a significant 17% drop in terms of the average price for private suites across these
co-working spaces, this is likely due to market competition.
18Influencers of Johor Startup Ecosystem
Ahmad Nizam Ismail Dr Lau Cher Han
Cradle Fund LEAD Academy
Educator
Aidah Ahmad Adzmi Dr Mohd Shahrizal
IRDA Sunar
MaGIC-X
Educator
Arif Tukiman Dr Ramesh Zaidi Rozan
RunCloud UTMxCite
Entrepreneur Educator
Clarence Chew Dr Yeong Che Fai
Hermo / TinkerBox Studio DF Automation
Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
Eason Chan Edey Suresh
JohorNow The Iskandarian
20Euginn Lim Ir Mohd Salehoddin
Whats Going On Abd Hamid
In Johor Bahru Iskandar Investment Berhad
Feng Lim Jason Kang
StartupJohor KJS / ServisHero
Entrepreneur
Ganesh Kumar Johan Ropi
Bangah SKALA REKA / Kilang Bateri
Commerce.Asia
Angel Investor
Angel Investor
Heng Cheng Loke John Tan
MTech Holding Maker Kluang
Angel Investor Educator
Ian Chua Johnson Lai
Hermo Online Marketing Academy /
Optisage
Entrepreneur
21Law Poh Chin Pierre Chua
JBTALK / iCore Timev Asia
Technology
Entrepreneur
Lee Sheah Liang Rob Lee
Infinity8 Coworking Space Common Extract
Entrepreneur
Leong Hean Hong Stephen Liew
HackerspaceJB JIOS Academy
Educator
Lokman Hakim Suphier Goh
52ST Coworking Space DrinkEntrepreneurs JB
MC Teng Zi Kang Tai
SAM Property OxWhite / FitGear
Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
22Notable Founders
in Johor EcosystemMohammed Al-Alas
& Shukry Radzi
Co-founders of Gini Technologies
Around two and a half years ago, Alas,
Shukry and Wahab met each other in while
studying in university and by a chance
visit to Forest City, Pontian, the boys
sparked an idea to bring local Malaysian
properties and showcased them to a wider
audience. By utilising virtual reality to provide
property developers a new tool to market
their developments, VRgini was born.
“When we first started the virtual reality
still relatively a new thing in Malaysia but
property at that time was very
lucrative investment. A lot of people are
coming to Johor and many of them are
internationals who are investing in
Malaysia. So we believed there is an
opportunity in real estate market and since
I was from the industry I think there is an
untapped market in term on technology in
real estate,” said Shukry.
VRgini provides two main services,
the first is solving their client’s needs
on a case by case basis. The other is
contentcreation via the use of VR. For the
“Normally when we talk about a property portal, you
past two years, they have been focusing on
upload a photo, info and that’s it. What if you did it in
service solutions to fund their main project
virtual reality? Your customers can basically walk
which is a VR platform for developers to
through the whole house,” said Alas, adding that it
showcase their properties to the greater
takes a bit of convincing for the greater masses to
24
market. The co-founders are confident to
accept VR as a tool instead of a gimmick. Both of them
have over 60,000 content to be hosted on
revealed that during their initial set up two years ago,
their platform within the first year.there were already developers attempting them an edge over other competitors that are
to ride the VR wave but came short due to trying to penetrate the market.
unfamiliarity with the limitations and potential use
of the technology. “We always try to channel the knowledge we
learned in last 2 years to the platform itself, so if
“People know the technology exists but they don’t we look at scalability, we try to push to multiple
know how to utilise it so that’s where we come markets as a platform not just in Malaysia. We
in. That’s why we are switching service based to can establish a good track of scalability when we
platform, we try to tackle the mentality that this look at our users from Southeast Asia and the
is how you use it. It’s not about the building the Middle East,” said Alas.
technology but also how you can utilise it,” said
Shukry. He added that what they develop has the insights
of not just property developers, but from agents,
They added that during the two years, they customers and the layman who wants to sell his
educated the market by conducting multiple property.
campaigns to convince them that VR is more than
“With insight from the perspective of people
just a simple trick, but a powerful tool to someone
who are going to use it, that’s where we focus
that truly understands it.
on user interface and user experience. We
developed whatever people tell us they need
“We don’t see ourselves as just a technology
and we make it look and feel certain way that
provider. We look at ourselves as solution
they feel more comfortable with,” continued
provider. We see a problem and try to tackle
’’
Alas.
that. We don’t want to provide technology like an
application and just give it to you. Because The two gentlemen advised eager entrepreneurs
if you create a sense of something that can be that it is not an easy path to building a successful
beneficial, customers will come,” said Shukry. company and that there are a lot of hurdles
and hardships that must be experienced and
Alas added that by doing so, it created a strong overcome for the business to truly take root and
25
relationship between VRgini and the property grow with the only way to fix things is to address
industry, and having a good track record gave issues and move forward together as a team.Arif Tukiman
Co-founder of Runcloud
With a background in computer science from
UTM, Arif began development for Runcloud in
2014 while still running his previous software
startup, Cool Code. Now purely focusing on
his cloud storage solution, the company aims
to simplify the onboarding process of cloud
servers from hours into minutes.
“While we were operating our software house
and developing systems for our clients, we
saw that there were a lot of processes when it
comes to cloud computing. So we developed
our own automated script and that’s when we
saw the potential in it.”
Over the 3 years period of running a software
house, Runcloud is one of the idea where we
did our own R&D, launch and managed to see
it picking up in traction to be able to spin off as
a separate business.
Arif and his team built Runcloud and decided
to test the market with developer community
JobWeb and did a soft launch at the JomLaunch
event where the crowd gave positive response.
26as he knew that these sites need
good content to gain more traction
and viewed it as a win, win situation
for Runcloud.
“The third option was to find a
product or brand ambassador.
Within three months, we managed to
get a few genuine feedback from our
users who reached out to us, saying
how much they liked our product and
wanted to contribute to our project
by writing about us and giving out
promo codes for their readers.”
“Most of the developers who develop websites & web
application might not know how to properly and efficiently deploy
Runcloud now has ambassadors in
their website to the clouds. We simplify this with our solution.”
the UK, US, Australia, Indonesia,
Brazil, Portugal and India. These
Because Runcloud was well received by developers, they
few individuals help contribute and
began to use and recommend the solutions in global
drive the digital solution forward get
forums and social media portals. Due to the close knit global
benefits such as a pro user account,
community, Arif rode the wave and utilised a Zero Marketing
merchandise as well as special
Budget approach via the free channels available to him.
promotions and features for their
“In the early days of Runcloud, what we did is that we community.
put our solutions as a community project on Digital
Ocean. Within 2 months, Digital Ocean mentioned us as Arif shares Runcloud with two
the most view project in 2016. From there, a lot others other co-founders, Amir &
developer community is aware about us and started Jebat. They are backed up by a team
’’
looking at us closely. consisting of both a front end and
back end developer respectively as
They started discussing about us.”
well as a digital marketer making it a
six man operation in Malaysia.They
“I tried to add a lot of friends and admins from different
are further supported by a customer
wordpress / laravel community groups. We gave them a
support team of four
free Runcloud account, they tried and like it and began
individuals based in India with six
recommending into their communities.”
brand ambassadors across six
countries.
The second marketing channel Arif utilised was content
27
creation and sharing it at selected programming and tech sites,“Most of our developer team members work They plan to launch Runcloud Education next year to
remotely and communicate through Slack, Skype help students in their studies and projects.
and Telegram. As the founders, we make regular
weekly & quarterly video conferencing meetings They have engage the Ministry of Education and
with them. I would said that Software as a service both private and public universities to adopt the idea.
(SaaS), the scaling part is crazy, once you have a very Arif added that they plan to launch it worldwide with
solid product and users start to recommend, you can subsidised costs of up to 80% for students.
grow organically just from community to community.”
“We will also run our own Runcloud community
“The challenge for us is to cover technical support meetup at every big city where our current user base,
from different timezone and localisation. Right now including New York, London, Mumbai & Indonesia.
our user base is 80% from US & UK, only 20% from That part is one of the big cities we’re looking to focus
APAC region. We need to find ambassadors who can to grow our community.”
help us to understand how community and cultures
work in other countries. The ambassadors knows their Runcloud also has plans to team up with other cloud
community best and this helps us in the process.” service providers such as Upcloud in Finland and
Digital Ocean in New York. They also plan to organise
Despite the growth and response of Runcloud, Arif our meetup, cohost with Digital Ocean at their HQ
believes that there is much to gain and still much to in New York and try to concentrate to big scale tech
do before he calls it a success. events such Wordcamp Europe & London.
“Our big goal & dream is to IPO the company either in
Malaysia, Australia / Nasdaq in 5 years. There is still
a lot of things we need to achieve quarterly & yearly
in our roadmap towards IPO. We’ve seen a lot of
potential of how being a SaaS company to go to IPO
28
with a valuation of more than USD 1 billion. There are
plenty of examples out there.”Cheok Ming Jing
Co-founder of Charby
With an idea to bring safe and Lim Thol Yong was undertaking where they managed to secure
reliable charging solutions to their master’s course, they funding that enabled them to
everyone, it took two years began researching on the idea bring their idea further.
for Ming Jing and his team at and built their first prototype
Charby to research and develop in the basement of their hostel “This fund really helped us in our
a working model before founding room. R&D stages, mould making and
his company a year later. since we have all the prototype
“After our prototype was built, we already, we reached out to
Because of the dangers of reached out to our smartphone our investors. That is why we
overnight charging or faulty distributors to validate our secured the fund. It allowed us
wiring, injuries can and will idea and prototype. We later to do proper marketing activities
happen when these electronic distributed the prototypes to and launch our product on
devices catch fire or explode selected customers to test it the US crowdfunding platform
without warning, which sparked out.” Indiegogo back in December
the idea to create a safer, 2017.”
smarter charging solution to all. By using the feedback given
to them by their test subjects, Ming Jing explained that they
29
While Ming Jing and his they revisited the idea and later choose Indiegogo due to the
co-founders Chik Sheng Fei and reached out to Cradle Fund platform having a reasonableamount of backers who are easily
acceptable to new emerging
technologies.
“They are willing to trust the company
even when the product hasn’t come out
yet, these are our potential customers.
We also want to have our product being
tested by a lot of people, and these
are those who are ready to see the
product. And by utilising this platform,
we can raise funds even before our
product is being manufactured, which
also works as a validation process for
the product.”
Ming Jing also knew the risks of going
to an online crowd sourcing platform
but due to their confidence in their
product, they were instantly validated
by over 50 customers and the overall
feedback they receive from their
Indiegogo backers was positive, which
provided a much needed boost in
getting their startup off the ground.
“They have never seen such a product
before and we know there is a lot of
untapped market for our product. We
“We don’t micromanage here, we like them to suggest new
were quite confident at the time to
ideas and we let them criticise our system for us to improve.
launch our product on Indiegogo.”
Every week we have a meeting for them to do that.”
For a team that consists mainly of a
When it comes to measuring success, the team feels that
young generation of entrepreneurs,
there is still room to grow and expand their horizons.
they take a modern and flexible
approach to managing the business. “We can’t say we’re successful yet. Yes, we have
This is becausethey feel that with more reached a certain milestone, but if you want to measure
30
flexibility, each person is allowed the
’’
success we have to look at sales figures.
creative space and room to work with.Currently we have reached over half a million in
sales. That’s where we are in our first financial year.”
Ming Jing revealed their plans for the next few
months, which is to hit the one million mark by
launching several new products, both hardware and
software that is expected to double their revenue.
Charby currently has customers from all over the
world, mainly due to its chosen business model
which includes drop ship sellers and Amazon.
Due to being sold only, they have reached several
international markets including US, Canada,
wages and the fact that Charby products are
Australia, Germany and UK being their major
seen as a premium, it was easier for them to
markets outside of Malaysia and Singapore.
penetrate and be accepted in those markets.
“Because our business models are more towards
“We realise that in SEA, many people will push
product selling, and the fact our product is designed
quality aside and judge a product based on
to adapt with people from different countries,
pricing and that is something difficult to fight
therefore we try had to get the European standard
because products from China are cheap. We
with is the FCC and CE that allows us to sell in
want our company’s branding to be known on
countries such as the US and UK.”
the international level and hence we aimed US
and UK markets first, before accepting sales
When asked why not focus on a closer, more relatable
from the rest of the world.”
market such as South East Asia or China, MingJing
revealed that it is due to the disposableincome
“We want to be the no 1 smart charging brand
those markets contain. Due to the higher hourly
in SEA and the voice of a safer and smarter
charging solution.”
31Dr Iskandar Illyas Tan
Founder of Holistic Lab
Halal certification is a game changer in many
markets across the world, even in Malaysia. Meet
Dr Iskandar Illyas, founder of Holistic Labs, a startup
that specalises in halal certification.
“When we talk about the halal industry, it is quite
complex. For a company to get halal certification,
there are several different kind of scheme and
categories they can apply. The company can come
from food & beverages / cosmetics / pharmaceutical/
logistics / consumers good & also slaughtering house,
there are in total 7 different kind of categories.”
“We wanted to understand the ecosystem in the
halal industry
we found out that most of the challenges was
for companies to get their halal certificate. We
tried to explore more on what are the problems
’’
and challenges faced by these companies.
32Dr. Iskandar explained that halal is more than Holistic Labs developed a compliance application
just what you eat, and it applies to consumer for mobile devices in order to help companies get
products, like cooking oil, cosmetics and also their halal certificate.
pharmaceutical.
“If a company wants to get the halal certificate,
He added that each category has different they need to comply internally 1st. So they need
standards they must comply. According to Dr to conduct internal audit because later on, after
Iskandar, big multinational companies have no they summit every single application & documents
qualms due to the resource they control, but it can and so on, Jakim who manage and control the
make or break any SME with limited funding who halal certification in Malaysia, will come to their
may face problems in compliances to processes. company / premise to conduct an external audit.”
“We have somewhere around 90% of our SMES “We are not just the only company that develop this
who have problems getting their certificate. So, solution, because from our experience from the
more research that we do, we realise that it is R&D and our close collaborations with authority in
because of the process towards getting the halal Hahal, Jakim & Jabatan Islam Negeri, we develop
certificate, primarily more on the compliance something like a formula and technology to assist
issue.” this process.”
Dr Iskandar explained that there is no single He added that in the beginning it was not easy for
solution to help local companies comply to the the team to learn the ropes of the Halal industry
standards, even with the multitude of software’s as they come from a background in tech.
and apps that are available on the market.
33“It is very challenging to establish the same
mindset. Jakim is more on the operations for
halal certification. For us, when we come from
the technology side who wants to introduce new
innovative technology in the area. At the 1st
stage it is very difficult for us as we don’t speak
the same language. But along the way, when
we try to learn their language, and also they try
to understand our language as well. It goes for
several years, but along the way, new people
came into Jakim and some of them comes from
the technology side as well, they can appreciate
what we try to offer for them.”
The company has grown significantly since its
inception in 2009, with several milestones, among
them, exclusive partnership with Halal Penang,
the island state’s halal hub that manages and
regulates the industry there.
“We just secured a project with Gerbang Alaf Sdn
Bhd, the company who’s the main franchisor of
McDonalds in Malaysia. Our product, QuikHalal
which is a cloudbase mobile halal auditing app, go beyond halal to HACCP and also GMP. We will
which may be used by companies to perform try to collaborate with other different agency. For
their internal audit. McDonalds currently having example if we talk about HACCP and GMP, they
250- 260 outlets all over Malaysia.” are under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health.
Our application is quite similar for different kind of
Dr. Iskandar reveals that there is still ample compliance.”
room to grow the company, seeing that the Halal
industry covers a wide scope, meaning a bigger “We also want to look into another area which is halal
market to penetrate and with his network built tourism. For example, in Malaysia we have Islamic
over a decade, is confident that Holistic Labs will tourism center under the ministry of tourism. They
make waves in the industry. have some kind of standards, they are very active
in terms of encouraging Muslim friendly hospitality
“At the moment, our focus is on halal, but next services, such as hotels, travel agent, and tourist
year we want to go on other different kind of packages. They already have these standards and
34
compliance. For example in Malaysia, we have we want to go into that area.”
food safety and quality certification, we want toDr Khor Kang Xiang
Co-founder of
Techcare Innovation
While still in his university days, Khor Kang
Xiang always wondered about the skills and
knowledge that he gained, and how to actually
apply his robotic and technological skills to good
use. During a chance visit at a stroke centre
is when he was inspired to put his knowledge
to help stroke patients and their rehabilitation
treatments.
“I saw a lot of stroke patients going for their
rehabilitation sessions and I realised that the
tools and equipment that they are using were
very limited. I saw a patient about the same
age as me and that got me thinking to put my
knowledge and skills to help and assist stroke
patients.”
35At first, Kang Xiang’s mentor advised
him to pass on the medical idea and
focus on traditional industries as a focus
of his talents, but he felt differently on
the matter and decided to pursue the
idea in spite of the difficulties he may
face.
“They said it will take me many years
to succeed, but I said if we are one of
the best robotic teams in the country
decided to drop the idea, who else
would do it? During that time, there
were not many startups venturing
’’
into the medical industry.
Kang Xiang also mentioned that the road to get here was
not easy, mentors and accelerator programmes were
Six years later, Kang Xiang has no
things they needed to go through before being able to test
regrets as many stroke centres use their
their invention with stroke patients.
solutions with positive feedback and
response, making his time and effort
“Dr. Yong from DF Automation is a very close mentor, he’s
worthwhile when he sees the patient’s
been with us since our beginning and gave us a lot of advice.
happy faces.
We joined a lot of accelerator programmes including CGP,
Creator Coach and MaGIC’s accelerator programmes.”
He began his journey with three other
classmates who are from several
“Of course we had a hard time, once we had to test our
disciplines including programming,
prototype on a specific date, but we had to work through
electronics and hardware design. From
the night with no sleep to solve the technical issues that
their competitive years in the robotics
we faced.”
scene, they grew their company slowly
with a common goal to help people with
According to him, the company positions itself as both
their hard-earned skills.
in the rehabilitation and robotics fields but with a more
affordable price, as a step to push his product into more
“We don’t have any bosses, but we
rehabilitation centres.
share a common goal which is to help
people with the skills and knowledge
“A lot of people can’t afford it unless the rehab centre is an
that we have, and that’s what brings us
advanced one. At the time we started this, there were only
together in this company and I admire
three rehabilitation robots that we know, and not all of them
36
them due to this.”
are in working conditions.“I started thinking if every year there’s around
fifty two thousand stroke patients in Malaysia,
but only two robots to help them, how does
this impact their lives? That’s where the idea
of creating something which is compact and
portable design that we can bring it around
and easy to use.”
After much research and development,
they managed to build something easily
transportable, which made them a cut above
the current players in the market. He feels
that in the near future, his products will enter
the homes of patients, going further than the “We observed that people still use the same
conventional rehabilitation centre. device that’s been around six years ago, still
queuing up. Imagine taking an hour to travel
to a place that has only one device to use and
waiting hours before you can actually use it.
We have the ambition that in the future, people
can do it at the comfort of their homes by
themselves.”
He feels that because of the acceptance that
doctors and physiotherapists have given him
and the team that has allowed them to reach
the distance today. But he also owes his
success to the tedious testing and reiterations
that they went through.
“We have to actually be careful because
most of the time we’ve done our testing and
experiments in the lab, which makes us think
we can do anything that we want. But in the
field, we have to thread carefully as we are
dealing with patients’ lives, who will be using
our products in the hospitals and rehabilitation
centres. This makes us think twice and consider
37
what we can provide or commit to doctors and
physiotherapist on that we promise to deliver.”Dr. Koh Kho King
“At first, it was just a simple open source online
platform, I uploaded photos of the products and
my wife will buy and send it to the customers
Founder of Shashinki here (Malaysia). It gave her something to do
and earn from. Only when we saw competition
from another Malaysian company that we began
treating it as a serious business.”
This happened in 2008 when a local competitor
What started out as a hobby to provide his began copying their business, making them
friends with photography equipment from Japan, realise that existing customers still prefer the
it grew bigger and turned into the entity we product and services that the couple provided.
now know as Shashinki. Dr. Koh Kho King was
studying for his PHD in Japan from 2005 till 2008 While Dr. Koh was still lecturing in UTM, the
before returning to Johor. While in Japan, Mrs. couple made the decision to hire more staff
Koh occupied her time by helping her husband and make it a sustainable business, but due to
purchase photography equipment and shipping it competition, they had to make sure that their
38
back to Malaysia. inventory management was unique in order to
move ahead of the pack.“It depends on how you look at competition. people come over to pick up their stuff, we saw
When people initially challenge you by that we can provide a better environment for them
duplicating your business, you feel a bit of while they wait for us to pack their stuff.”
pressure, you think of ways to overcome it.
This is actually a positive thing. You need “As the online business grew, we decided to take
’’
challenges to grow. up more space, hence the decision to move into a
three story facility. Although we are predominantly
“The biggest advantage is that we have a huge
an online business, now we have a place to
number of SKUs in our website, currently we have
showcase our products and provide other services
about to twenty thousand products online, mainly
such as repairs and camera maintenance.”
dedicated to photography equipment.”
Dr. Koh added that because they had a physical
He added that having a wide inventory and
store, more customers were purchasing items as it
the technical knowledge for each product
generated confidence and the option to come and
complements the business aspect as they can
make informed purchases, fueling the growth of
always help customers with their purchases. He
Shashinki’s online presence.
also explained the reason for expanding from
online to offline retail.
“I think the beauty of being an online store is that
you do not have to keep all the SKU that you have.
“We had a successful online business at the time,
39
We have about 20k SKUs online, but we don’t keep
but we were operating from a home office set up.
all. So long as there is a platform to showcase it
It was efficient but can be messy at times. Whenwe can always order from the supplier
when customer make the order. But
we do keep about 30% fast moving
items in our store.”
He believes that the photography
industry is a professional industry
due to the way customers make
their purchases. From professional
content creators to enthusiasts,
those who need the right equipment
will flock to the one who can provide
the best value for money with good
service.
“Those are our customer from day
one. In that sense, our business is
still growing, although not like before,
but we get more quality customers
who are serious and want to know
more about photography.”
Dr. Koh shared that he never expected
for Shashinki to grow into the brand it
is today, as it was just a hobby fueled
by passion that drove him forward.
“If you want to start something, you
must have deep passion in it, for you
to last. If it’s purely about making
money, it won’t bring you far. You’ll
get tired very soon, very easily. If you
want to go further and make it your
lifetime career, you must have deep
passion and love in it, don’t chase /
start an online e-commerce business
just because you want to make money
40
but to make you happy till the end.”Dr Lim
Meng Hui
Founder of
Smartpeep
Sometimes, having the
knowledge and idea does
not mean it’s going to be an
instant hit with the market
and coming short may bring
the end of a startup. But if
one learns from his mistakes,
having a second try with a
fresh new perspective might
be the ticket to success.
Take the story of Dr. Lim
Meng Hui, founder of
Smartpeep. An academician
based in Hong Kong with
a background in computer
science and specialising
in facial and fingerprint
recognition, he had the
passion to share these
breakthroughs with the
masses.
41“There are many problems that we know we can “We talked to a lot of our customers and found
solve with our video analytics technology. We out they’ve tried similar products but have a lower
chose to start with intruder detection, as home accuracy of around 60%, so that means a lot of
safety has been a critical issue in Malaysia. We false alarms. After our initial pilot launch, we found
feel that this is a social problem that we can help out that Smartpeep is 80% to 90% accurate and
alleviating with. However,we failed because AI is that’s a huge leap from any other existing product.”
still a very expensive technology and we realized
that consumers in Malaysia are less willing to Dr. Lim shared his journey from launching the
afford.” healthcare application in July 2017 when they
joined an accelerator programme in Hong Kong.
“Our passion has always been to solve social After graduating from the programme, they began
problems with AI. Because of my grandma’s fall prototyping their designs before running a pilot
incident, we came up with our second idea of project nine months later.
automating fall monitoring with video analytics,
aiming to contribute towards better aging care. “After six to nine months of testing. We rolled out
We have since obtained our first significant our prototype for a three month trial with a client.
investment from Zeroth accelerator and started to During this time, we encountered several issues
grow. In 2018, we have started winning several and addressed them.”
competitions in Singapore and Malaysia.”
Smartpeep is a nursing aid that helps hospitals
and nursing homes to reduce inpatient falls in
their facilities with the help of a virtual patient sitter
system. In a nutshell, it’s a babysitter that will notify
the nurses or caretakers if a patient falls from their
beds, allowing faster response times without the
tedious tasks of round the clock rounds.
Dr Lim feels that healthcare is a very conventional
industry and with the advancements of AI
technology, should be better integrated for the
benefit of the greater masses.
Although his idea and product sounds easy,
there are already competitors in the market
with similar features, Smartpeep has a
higher accuracy that pulls it ahead of the
42
’’
pack in terms of service value.“Technology was a challenge. Video analytics to convince the management to give us a try, because
is a tough subject when it comes to AI. Our first we are similar but on a whole different technological
tests were in a confined environment with limited level.”
data showing us good results. But during the
pilot programme, we realised that our product With the rise of AI predicted over the next decade, he
was triggering false alarms, we had to fix this.” advises those keen to be patient and ready for the
challenges to come, but always see the opportunities
Dr Lim and his team addressed each issue that come with each obstacle.
and solved them to make sure their client was
happy with the product as the game is always
advancing and once a potential client is left
unsatisfied, he or she may lose confidence in
the idea.
“Video analytics is evolving over time, some
hospitals in Singapore have actually tried similar
tech two, three years ago but they failed. A lot of
false alarms and misdetection that the previous
company did not address. It took us awhile
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