Malaysia's venture capital (VC) industry needs more involvement from the private sector, Wahed Ventures board member and advisory panel member Noor Amy Ismail said.
Malaysia's venture capital (VC) industry needs more involvement from the private sector, Wahed Ventures board member and advisory panel member Noor Amy Ismail said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's venture capital (VC) industry needs more involvement from the private sector, Wahed Ventures board member and advisory panel member Noor Amy Ismail said.

Compared to Singapore's VC whose value stood at US$9.5 billion as of 2022, she said the domestic VC only amounted US$758 million.

"Of the US$758 million, only 175 deals have been been deployed to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. 

"Only 8.1 per cent of the deals went to early stage which is practically non-existent," she said in a session at Bank Negara Malaysia's Sasana Symposium 2024 here today.

This is a stark contrast to Singapore where  1,111 deals were registered, she added.

Noor Amy also emphasised on bureaucracy, saying it should facilitate the process to help fulfill the various roadmaps introduced by the government. 

This includes Malaysia Venture Capital Roadmap 2024-2030 under and Catalysing MSME and MTC Access to the Capital Market: Five-Year Roadmap (2024–2028).

Taking South Korea as example, she said 41 big corporations formed an alliance and the process to approve the funds is done in a short period.

"The process in South Korea does not take more than a week but in Malaysia, it takes 10 to 20 days. You can't afford to take that 20 days because it equals to money.

"So more private sector should be involved in the VC industry," she added.