Cyberview Sdn Bhd, the company leading Cyberjaya’s transformation into a Global Technology Hub has shortlisted five startups to participate in the latest installment of the Cyberview Living Lab Accelerator (CLLA) Programme. The five startups have been working out of CoInnov8, Cyberview’s collaborative smart city space for a little over a month now and will be plugging in four more months of intensive work under the programme.
“The latest installment of our accelerator programme is testament to the success of the past installments. For example, the Demo Day which was held in October of last year saw satisfactory response from ecosystem partners, venture capitalists, and corporate partners towards the last cohort of the programme. In fact, the amount of funds raised by the previous cohort comes up to RM12.28 million,” said the Managing Director, Mohd Najib Ibrahim.
The Demo Day is held at the tail-end of every CLLA Programme in order to provide the opportunity for startups to demonstrate their ideas and innovations as well as pitch their business models to the ecosystem players. This is aimed at further propelling their businesses towards commercialisation.
According to Najib Ibrahim, Cyberview has been focusing on the areas of Fintech and the Internet of Things (IoT) for the past two installments of the programme, but have decided to also open up to startups in the area of Robotics this time around. This is in tandem with the market’s increased appetite and attention towards these three areas, especially with Robotics being one of the focal points for innovation leaders making strides to build out the vision of Industry 4.0.
“Fintech has seen tremendous growth in the past few years, with global Fintech investments hitting new record levels every year. In the middle of this is blockchain, which is expected to be the future of financial infrastructure. For IoT, the Malaysian market itself holds so much potential – according to the Malaysia National IoT Strategic Roadmap, the initial economic potential for the country in this particular area will be RM9.5 billion GNI creation by 2020 and is expected to experience exponential growth to reach RM42.5 billion in 2025. We have also decided to include Robotics this year as it is one of the most important areas in emerging technology with research stating that the global industrial robotics space is expected to reach USD40 billion by 2020. This solidifies even further how we need to move in line with global and regional trends,” added Najib Ibrahim.
“Hence, we are very excited with the recent announcement by our Prime Minister of reviving Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) plan. Tun Mahathir had a solid vision for Cyberjaya 21 years ago, and with the city planned for a full MSC status now, we believe this would enhance our current and future initiatives even more with the ultimate aim of transforming Cyberjaya into a Global Technology Hub.”
Finnext Capital is the programme manager, working with Cyberview for the second time to ensure that the startups are equipped with sufficient guidance and resources throughout the five-month period. Finnext Capital is an innovation enabler consulting firm which provides professional advisory to both corporations and startups.
According to Siti Shafinaz Mohd Salim, Acting Head of Technology Hub Development Division, the priority is to provide these startups with problem statements that reflect the needs of Cyberjaya’s main stakeholders and its community. This is to ensure that a solid purpose and direction is set for these startups who already have at least a minimum viable product that can enrich the smart city ecosystem in Cyberjaya, and possibly the nation as a whole.
“They come to us because they need assistance which includes mentorship and market access. It has always been our aim to engage with startups and provide them with a suitable launchpad towards the next phase of their commercialisation plan,” added Shafinaz.
The accelerator offers participants a programme value up to RM100,000 which comprises resources, facilities, mentorship, networking, market access opportunities, and other assistance.
The five startups participating in the latest installment of the CLLA Programme are Fintech players EPC Blockchain, MEDKAD, and CheQQme; IoT solutions provider Touchless; and Ideasparq Robotics, an automation company which provides robotics solutions.
“The CLLA Programme is unique in a sense that it supports startups with solutions that contribute to a smart city’s needs; and which balances the scale between meeting the Cyberjaya community’s present demands and also moving in tandem with the different moving parts of the tech space,” said Najib Ibrahim.
“We are always ecstatic when startups take the learnings from our programme and are able to expand their businesses either to local or global markets. One example is LuxTag, one of the startups from the last installment of our accelerator programme which secured a hefty amount of funding recently. This pushes their valuation up significantly, but more importantly, this would allow them to further their mission and business goals,” added Najib Ibrahim.
According to Najib Ibrahim, in transforming Cyberjaya as a Global Technology Hub, what is key is the impact of technology and innovation on society and the way we live and do things. The Cyberview Living Lab Accelerator (CLLA) Programme provides the opportunity for these startups to test and tweak their ideas in a real life city setting, which would allow them to engage with the community within the city and ultimately assess the potential impact and values of their innovation.
Najib Ibrahim added, “Cyberjaya is a ready and safe testbed for startup founders to pilot their ideas. 20 percent of Cyberjaya’s total population are early tech adopters, which simply means that the community here is always ready to provide feedback on what works and what does not.”
About the latest cohort of the Cyberview Living Lab Accelerator Programme
- EPC Blockchain aims to empower the general public to invest into Energy Efficiency as well as Renewable Energy projects. Leveraging on patent pending solution for the use of blockchain technology, the company will enable investments regardless of quantum to meet the pressing needs to mitigate climate change. EPC Blockchain offers the possibility of monetising carbon credits from energy projects which will benefit small project developers as well as create an ecosystem that allows for the fundraising of energy projects through alternative models such as equity crowdfunding.
- MEDKAD provides the most cost-effective solutions for companies to manage their staff’s medical benefits and delivers the most user-friendly solutions for clinics with the fastest payment disbursement.
- CheQQme is an action-based (call-to-action) mobile marketing platform for merchants to carry out interesting campaigns for their customers and fans which can meet their favourite lifestyle needs geographically; navigate on smart phones with greater visibility; promotions; as well as entertain and engage with customers through “fun sales”.
- Touchless is a parking management system that helps drivers get easier and faster parking access, as well as for parking authorities to manage their parking efficiently. By developing and utilising the latest technologies of IoT, Artificial Intelligence and big data, Touchless is on a mission to be one of the world’s best parking system providers.
- Ideasparq Robotics is an automation company which provides robotics solutions. Their expertise is not limited to AGVs (Autonomous Guided Vehicle) as their primary product, but continuously develop a range of new products that solves real problems within the manufacturing industry. They are working on other exciting technologies such as Automation Storage & Retrieval System, Exoskeletons and Driverless vehicles for intra logistics.