Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI), Khairy Jamaluddin Announces the TSFRF Funding by Malaysia Debt Ventures (MDV), Joachim shares his thoughts on Niaga Times.
15 May 2020 – In light of the current change of the economic landscape and the drastic effect is has had on startups, our Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin, together with Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz spoke about the three key initiatives in aiding startups, one of which will the RM100 million in low-interest loans to be handled by Malaysia Debt Ventures (MDV). The announcement was made on the 8th of May.
Weighing in on the potential benefits of the RM100 million loan called the Technology Start-Ups Funding Relief Facility (TSFRF) is none other than our Founder and CEO, Joachim Sebastian.
In an interview with Niaga Times yesterday, Joachim said, “The very nature of a startup generally has an early unprofitable phase where technology is being built, the market is being validated and the product being fine tuned. During this time, startups will never qualify for traditional funding. Thus, an alternative debt, grant and equity funding mechanism is required to shore up these startups to survive the effects of the pandemic. Having debt as the instrument for funding also supports startups which already have cash flow.”
Joachim and Everpeaks have many years of experience in ecommerce, especially in the growth of startups. “Debt changes that dynamic significantly. I look forward to reading the fine print once the actual packages by MDV, Cradle and the others are announced,” he added.
Two other initiatives announced were a RM26.5 million grant from Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, and development programmes led by Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC). Existing venture capital funds from Malaysian Venture Capital Bhd (Mavcap) were also mentioned as relevant avenues. More on that here as elaborated by Digital News Asia.
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