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Top 10 Successful Unicorns In Malaysia

Top 10 Unicorns In Malaysia

Unicorns: Many of us have inevitably herd of unicorns by now. But unfortunately, Malaysia has yet to develop its own (you may have strong opinions on this subject, but hold your tongue).

Currently, there are more unicorns in the US than anywhere else, although Asia is raising a lot of unicorns as well. We have five unicorns, each in Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines in Southeast Asia alone. 

It is disappointment to many Malaysians that Grab was unable to be integrated into the city’s development and that it became the first decacorn (a company valued at over US$10 billion) in Southeast Asia.

What were the gaps back then, and what are the gaps today? Has Malaysian yet to grow a unicorn? These questions come to mind as we write about the startup ecosystem. However, we should first review the basics of unicorns before getting into that.

What Is A Unicorn?

Cowboy Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm founded by Aileen Lee in 2013, first coined the term unicorn to describe startups valued at 1 billion dollars.

Startup companies valued at US$10 billion are referred to as decacorns, another term I mentioned previously. 

There are also unicorns worth 100 billion dollars, minicorns worth 1 million dollars, and soonicorns (startups with the potential to become unicorns).

The number of unicorns in the world has risen to more than 600 by April 2021, including decacorns and hectocorns. The industries they work in include e-commerce, fintech, automation, transportation, internet software, etc.

What Is It Like To Be A Unicorn?

Additionally, Aileen Lee explained that unicorns were rare tech startups valued at $1 billion. Since unicorns usually come from startups that introduce disruptive innovation through technology, most of them are usually startups.

For instance, Uber and Airbnb adopted technology and pioneered their industries by changing how we share commodities. It is easier for first-mover companies to become unicorns, but it is not guaranteed.

A RazorPay study found that 87% of unicorns’ products are software, 7% are hardware, and 6% are other products and services. 

Other characteristics of unicorns include the fact that they are usually B2C and privately held.

Furthermore, the financial performance of a unicorn has little bearing on its valuation. For example, consider Grab, which is still not profitable overall, despite CEO Anthony Tan’s boasts that it is lucrative in particular verticals. Despite this, the company is expected to be valued at US$39.6 billion.

A billion-dollar value will come through investors and large investment rounds for many firms, but an acquisition can instantly increase a company’s prestige.

Malaysia’s economy is the world’s 39th largest, with a nominal GDP of USD 380 billion. Over 56.2% of Malaysia’s GDP comes from the service sector, which employs 53% of its workforce. The country’s biggest trade partner in China.

Its location, access to natural resources, modern ports, and government regulations support a thriving startup ecosystem in Malaysia. Almost all Malaysian startups are located in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.

In the new world order of the millennium, Malaysia is the nerve center of SEA’s startup ecosystem with over 3.7K startups, including 900 public ones.

We at Inventiva keep a close eye on the latest announcements in the world of startups and the ecosystems around them – including venture capital funds, private equity funds, investment banks, etc.

  1. Naluri Life

By helping individuals with chronic diseases take charge of their lives through early intervention and daily coaching, Naluri Hidup (local Malay for “life instinct”) is one new entrant in the health tech space.

Azran Osman-Rani, an entrepreneur with a serial track record, was still leading the Malaysian office of video streaming service iflix in 2015 when a Stanford University gathering brought him in touch with Omada Health’s co-founder.

Azran built a reputation for himself by using hyper-localization to launch new business divisions for broadcaster Astro, low-cost airline AirAsia X, and iflix. Azran, an Ironman triathlete, was drawn to Omada’s emphasis on human behavior to achieve and maintain health.

“I recognized that diagnostics, wearable tech, DNA analysis, doctor booking platforms, and digital prescriptions are all technologies it can use anywhere in the world,” he stated.

Influencing human behavior to become healthier, on the other hand, necessitates a thorough understanding of local languages, cultures, diets, and stressors. “You can’t recreate the American paradigm of behavior change, where being healthy means eating kale or quinoa and doing yoga and meditation,” he said.

Azran lost his father to cancer and diabetes in 2011, and Omada’s focus on mental health was personal for him.

As a result of his life-threatening conditions, my father struggled with depression and anxiety. But unfortunately, hospitals and doctors focused on treating my father’s physiological symptoms, not so much on his mental health.

After iflix closed a USD 133 million Series C investment in August 2017, Azran quit the company and returned to the Omada concept.

“I couldn’t get any younger.” “I wanted to create something from the ground up, something more significant and specific to me,” Azran explained.

He intended to disrupt the healthcare sector but with little knowledge. So Azran spent three months talking to Malaysian corporate chief executives, CEOs of insurance companies, and C-suites about their woes and pain points using his networking connections.

His path led him back to his previous colleagues at McKinsey, who introduced him to Dr. Jeremy Ting, a medical doctor who leads the firm’s Southeast Asian healthcare practice.

Dr. Hariyati Shahrima, who was a consulting psychologist for the Biggest Loser Asia, was introduced to Azran by another industry buddy.

“Dr. Hari holds a Ph.D. in health psychology, a somewhat unique specialty that focuses on persons with heart disease and cancer. She was seeing patients indivdually. She may reach 100 patients by going digital,” Azran remarked.

A core team was in place at Naluri, but there was no minimum viable product. People were first asked if they would be willing to interact with psychologists via instant messaging.

The number of volunteers we got from Facebook was around 30 to 40. Modules were originally designed as a series of multiple-choice questions with PowerPoint as the platform. People would reply to the intern’s screenshot. The intern would send the following picture. The intern would do the same. Such was the crudeness of it all.

We hired engineers to build the app once it became clear that people were interested in it. Azran announced that Naluri version 1 was launched in April 2018.

Since its introduction, Naluri’s corporate programs have attracted 95% of its 5,000 users, with its team of 50 doctors, coaches, dietitians, psychologists, and nutritionists assisting insurance and corporations in screening employees and policyholders for early health problems.

“In a 1,000-person company, less than 100 employees accounted for more than half of all medical expenses and sick time. So we assist companies in identifying these 100 through early screening rather than waiting for them to become ill. Then we enroll them in a four-month Naluri program funded by their employers or insurance companies.

“On the first day, most clients talk with a psychologist for five or ten minutes about their blood results, depression, or anxiety. After that, all communication will be online for the next four months, but the first encounter will still be in person,” he said.

With over 30 corporate customers today, including three insurers (including AXA) and hospitals, Naluri expects to have more by year’s end. The company has 1,500 active members, and new employees are sponsored every four months. Companies pay USD 25 per employee, on average.

As mental health is still famous in Malaysia despite Naluri’s dual focus, it addresses the physical condition first.

“Those few organizations that provide mental health services use the usual employee assistance program (EAP), which involves calling a hotline and scheduling an appointment with a therapist. Your company may sponsor up to five sessions per year; if you want more, you must pay.” Unfortunately, only 4% of employees use the EAP, and some organizations we spoke with report rates as low as 2%. However, according to our data and Ministry of Health studies, 30–50 percent of working persons face mental health challenges. Therefore, the EAP paradigm is broken,” Azran stated. 

Early screening disrupts Naluri’s EAP. It is not unusual for 40% of employees to be depressed, 60% anxious, and 30% stressed.

There may be 8% of those 40% experiencing very severe depression, 12% experiencing severe depression, and 6% experiencing moderate depression. Companies are seeing their first quantitative data sponsor employees with stress levels above the norm in Naluri.

Our coaches talk to these users about simple things. It also builds a rapport with you and makes you feel more comfortable talking when you suddenly feel overwhelmed or have a panic attack. As a result, we hope to detect and prevent borderline suicidal behavior earlier,” he said.

Naluri uses Amazon Web Services, a private server environment with end-to-end encryption, and the standards of the United States HIPAA. The insurers and employers do not receive individual user information; they only receive aggregated and percentage data.

As Naluri discovered with a client in the oil and gas industry, some workplace practices can be influenced by aggregate data.

“Showing people their emotions can be a useful tool.”. Many employees experienced stress at the same time as this client. It shut a plant down during that time, and employees were required to work round the clock to reopen it.

They were worried about who would send the kids to school and take care of them. During the next plant shutdown, companies can consider providing some level of support.”

Creating a support system for mental health and providing employees with digital solutions has led to the biggest change in policy, Azran said.

Since launching in January 2018, Naluri has raked in two rounds of funding, with Biomark and 500 Startups contributing USD 233,000 and Global Founders Capital contributing USD 1.5 million in July 2019.

In 2020, Azran intended to raise USD 5 million in a Series A round to expand Naluri’s operations to Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. Indonesian operations will begin by the end of 2019.

Digital therapeutics investors must view the business from a completely different perspective, Azran says, as it’s not built around racking up millions of users.

In July, Livongo became the world’s first unicorn in the digital therapeutics sector, raising 3 billion dollars in an IPO. Naluri currently has about 6,000 users from 30 clients, whereas Livongo was in its second year after its listing.

unicorns

Company Overview

Legal Name

Naluri Life

Industries

Artificial Intelligence, Fitness, Health Care, Psychology, Therapeutics, Wellness

Founder(s)

Azran Osman-Rani, Hariyati Abdul Majid, Jeremy Ting

Founded Date

2017

Total Funding Amount

$7,840,000

Investors

13 Number of Investor

  1. iPrice Group

A fund managed by ACA Investments Pte Ltd, a Japanese private equity fund based in Singapore, has invested in the e-commerce aggregator platform iPrice Group. Daiwa PI Partners and Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund are other returning investors.

A pioneer in Southeast Asian e-commerce, iPrice operates out of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, listing about 1.5 billion products from more than 1,500 merchant partners.

We see enormous potential for Southeast Asia’s eCommerce industry, which is at an emerging stage. 

Due to its comprehensive coverage of Southeast Asian markets, iPrice Group will play a significant role. Tomohiro Fujita, Chief Investment Officer of ACA Investments Pte Ltd, says it is the gateway to online shopping.

iPrice’s platform recorded more than 20 million monthly visitors and five million transactions in 2019. In light of the rosy outlook of Southeast Asian e-commerce – which Google and Temasek predict will be a US$150 billion industry by 2025 – the KL-based startup is likely to continue growing quickly.

In essence, iPrice aims to be the leading gateway. According to iPrice Group founder and CEO David Chmelar, the company strives to be the “best shopping companion online.”.

IPrice has become a trusted source for discovering new products beyond price comparison with this expanded offering. IPrice provides users with professional product reviews and in-depth information about sellers, plus daily deals and coupons.

To continue deepening their value proposition to users, Chmelar says they are funding a new round of funding. The objective of iPrice is not just to provide the lowest price but also to help with the overwhelming complexity inherent to the e-commerce platforms that house thousands of merchants and products.

Getting a cheap product that turns out to be a scam or less than original, with no warranty or broken, will leave you distraught, Chmelar tells Digital News Asia.

Users need all of these details to make the right decisions. Since then, we have been paying close attention to a seller’s rating and highlighting those without a reputation as risky to deal with and those with a good rating. The content of those reviews is also enhanced with professional reviews. It is our mission to guide users in making the right decision.”

The fresh round of funding will also help iPrice connect to market specificity. According to Chmelar, e-commerce in the region is gradually moving to mobile — in fact, mobile accounts for 96 percent of their traffic in Indonesia.

This poses significant issues for e-commerce, particularly how these platforms and services are accessed. For example, when using a mobile device to access the Internet for certain services, users face a profusion of apps.

“We need to be where the customers are to pursue our next trip.”

We need to engage users directly on our platform, continue our strong presence on Google as it remains a vital starting point for many shoppers, and enable partners across the region, such as media platforms, social media apps, and all the emerging super apps, to provide e-commerce content for their audience,” Chmelar explains.

Super apps must be able to facilitate e-commerce. As an example, they work with the mobile messaging app LINE. The app’s shopping tab offers users access to a marketplace powered by iPrice, where it can find listings. Essentially, iPrice enables LINE to provide e-commerce content, including deals and products curated by the company.

IPrice stands out from its rivals by joining forces with super apps, which is part of its business model. Since platforms like Zalora and Lazada found affiliate marketing a valuable marketing channel, affiliate marketing has declined. However, Chmelar notes that affiliate marketing has grown over the past few years and is changing for two main reasons.

While the market will become increasingly saturated, iPrice will continue to stand out. Similar players like PriceBook and PriceArea are more focused on their own countries. Thus their regional reach is already an advantage. “The regional presence is crucial for our major partners (particularly Shopee, Lazada, Zalora, and international companies like Farfetch),” explains Chmelar.

However, their ability to weed out low-quality merchants and products while also adding transparency to the online shopping experience sets them apart. Some price aggregators may concentrate solely on the best rates and deals, but they risk recommending dangerous products. iPrice, on the other hand, claims to supply “limited” high-quality leads from its partners.

As a first point, new, emerging players have embraced mobile-only strategies. Using channels like mobile games, these platforms reach customers and gain traffic. “This is good for us because the more affiliates there are, the more merchants will realize that affiliate marketing makes sense and that there is the tech behind it,” Chemelar says.

Furthermore, users and merchants alike are concerned about the dominance of Google and Facebook in online marketing. He notes that big marketplaces are seeking alternatives.

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Company Overview

Legal Name

iPrice 

Industries

Coupons, E-Commerce, Shopping

Founder(s)

David Chmelar, Heinrich Wendel

Founded Date

2014

Total Funding Amount

$21,250,000

Investors

20 Number of investors

  1. Torum

AU21 Capital announced that Torum, a social media platform catering to cryptocurrency users, closed a $1.45M round of funding with 13 private investors, including Consensus Lab, Lotus Capital, Redline Blockchain Capital, Angel One, Waterdrip Capital, Hotbit, Skywater Capital, N7 Labs, IDC, Worshipper Capital.

Torum seeks to build an integrated blockchain social media platform that integrates NFT and DeFi features based on Binance Smart Chain. In addition to launching into NFT and DeFi markets, Torum seeks to introduce new use-cases to the crypto industry with the resources and connections from its VC team.

Torum brings the best social experience to the crypto space, focusing on gamification elements and token utility. In the future, Torum wishes to act as an adoption bridge that helps the general public to become more familiar with the crypto market.

As part of Torum’s ecosystem incentive, XTM, the native token, can be used to spend on gifts, boost content, and trade NFT. In addition, it will use various gamified methods designed by the team to distribute revenue generated by the ecosystem back to the Torum community.

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Company Overview

Legal Name

Torum

Industries

Cryptocurrency, Mobile Apps, Social, Social Media, Social Network

Founder(s)

Ah Go, Alwin Chang, Jayson Tan

Founded Date

2018

Total Funding Amount

$2,571,250

Investors

13 Number of investors

  1. Iflix

Liberty Global and other companies have invested $90 million in iflix, an Asian subscription video provider. iflix plans to use the capital to expand internationally.

This round of funding has been closed, according to the company. IFlix recently partnered with Zain of the Middle East and Africa for ‘iflix Arabia,’ a mobile and data services operator, and a private investment firm that will remain anonymous. Sky PLC, Catcha Group, and EMC also contributed capital to Iflix.

With its positioning as the “leading video-on-demand service for emerging markets,” the company operates in nine countries: Thailand, Pakistan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Brunei, the Maldives, and Vietnam.

There are few metrics disclosed by this May 2015-launch. However, “Iflix has quickly established itself as a leading streaming entertainment provider and set a new standard for offering world-class service to all local customers. Over 5 billion minutes have been streamed since the service launch, a 27x growth in daily active accounts since launch. According to the script, there are also more than 170 content partnerships between Hollywood studios, regional studios, and local distributors.

“There are already over 2.5 billion people in emerging economies with smartphones who have a passion for cultural influences worldwide and want easy and reliable access to the best entertainment content available.” “Our goal is to make iflix available to everyone,” stated Mark Britt, co-founder and group CEO of iflix.

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Company Overview

Legal Name

Iflix 

Industries

Digital Entertainment, Internet, Video Streaming

Founder(s)

Mark Britt, Patrick Grove

Founded Date

2014

Total Funding Amount

$348,000,000

Investors

22 Number of investors

  1. Aerodyne Group

As part of a deal to acquire a majority stake in Malaysia-based Synapse Innovation Sdn Bhd (“Synapse”), the Aerodyne Group, a global specialist in Drone Technology, Data Technology, and Digital Transformation, has signed an agreement with Synapse.

As a result of this investment, Aerodyne Group will be able to boost its AI and Data Analytics capabilities and strengthen its technical support for its products

around the world. In addition, Dr. Afnizanfaizal Abdullah, Synapse’s Chief Executive Officer and an AI scientist in Malaysia, will remain a shareholder and serve as its chief executive officer.

Synapse has a headquarters in Johor, Malaysia, and specializes in machine learning algorithms to design and develop cloud-based prescriptive analytics services for various industries, including Agriculture, Infrastructure, and Oil and Gas. In addition, Aerodyne Group will offer an intelligent nested, autonomous drone platform coupled with data intelligence combined with Synapse. 

“This investment into Synapse is the first of many future M&As concentrating on improving the breadth and depth of our second DT pillar,” stated Kamarul A Muhamed, founder, and CEO of Aerodyne Group (Data Technology). Synapse is ideally aligned with this objective and has the competence to help forward this agenda. Furthermore, under its technological ecosystem building objective to Malaysian champion technology, Aerodyne Group also seeks to accelerate Synapse’s expansion plans exponentially.”

Synapse CEO Dr. Afnizanfaizal Abdullah expressed optimism about the company’s next phase as an Aerodyne Group-backed startup, which will help the company ramp up from 30 data scientists to 500 AI engineers and data scientists in 2-3 years.

Having been trusted by Aerodyne Group with this synergistic partnership, Synapse is glad to utilize our artificial intelligence and data analytics expertise to push technological boundaries. As Dr. Afnizanfaizal Abdullah stated, disruptive technologies like drone intelligence are absolute game-changers.

Anuar concluded, “It’s an exciting time for Aerodyne Group.”

Aerodyne Group’s future will be reshaped by the augmentation of AI. Aerodyne Group will enhance its competitive advantage as the top drone company globally through this investment in Synapse, strengthening its position to become an international public company in the future.

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Company Overview

Legal Name

Aerodyne Group

Industries

Drone Management

Founder(s)

Kamarulazman Muhamed

Founded Date

2014

Total Funding Amount

$30,000,000

Investors

9 Number of investors

  1. iProperty.com

Singapore’s real estate website iProperty.com.sg is one of the largest. MSN’s exclusive property partner and an official Singapore Institute of Estate Agents (IEA) partner, Powerhouse Realty, is also an official partner of the Singapore Institute of Estate Agents (IEA). So we thought, why not look at a website that claims to help Singaporeans, expatriates, and foreigners find their dream home or investment property.

However, users cannot submit their sell/buy adverts on the website. Instead, one must register and submit their demands, which are then given to agents who contact individual buyers and sellers to suit their needs. Therefore, it is necessary to pay to have one’s property advertised on the website.

Apart from property listings, the website also has a resources section with information on property news, Singapore districts, HDB estates, rules for ex-pats buying property in Singapore, procedures for purchasing a property in Singapore, choosing the right agent, and a forum to discuss property-related issues, among other things. In addition, commercial Asia Dotcom is a dedicated website for selling and buying commercial properties in Singapore on the website.

Founded in Kuala Lumpur, the company owns 18 property websites around the region, including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and India.

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Company Overview

Legal Name

iProperty

Industries

Internet, Property Management, Real Estate

Founder(s)

Joshua Wong, Murli RK, Patrick Grove

Founded Date

2007

Total Funding Amount

$100,000,000

Investors

2 Number of investors

  1. Pop Meals

Pop Meals is a Malaysian fast food business that specializes in digital service. Malaysia’s first startup accelerator program, Y Combinator, was launched as dahmakan by veterans of the food delivery industry. To control almost every step of its operations, Pop Meals operates on a full-stack platform. This platform allows the startup to control recipe development, food production, tech, outlet operations, and last-mile delivery. 

A hybrid, dine-in, and delivery kitchen business model is also advantageous to the startup because it optimizes cost at every point in the value chain. In addition, as hybrid outlets are set up in prime locations, customers are more likely to visit them as they have numerous options, including dine-in and takeaway. This is in contrast to traditional delivery-only services.

The Pop Meals application and menu boards have the same appearance and feel as a Billboard Music Chart. The most popular meals are shown at the top of Pop Meals’ meal chart-style menu, making it easy for customers to answer the most challenging question: “What do I get today?” It chooses its weekly menu based on market research and client data, such as food preferences and spending habits.

Pop Meals is well on its way to driving its menu towards trendy, exciting, drool-worthy dishes that spark excitement, encapsulating the mission of Pop Meals – to offer popular meals at even more affordable prices – with the introduction of compelling twists on favorites like the Nasi Kunyit, Golden Salted Egg Butter Chicken, and Crazy Spicy Mac & Cheese.

Pop Meals, a quick-serving food brand from Malaysia, opened a concept store at D’Pulze Mall a few weeks ago. They are famous for their signature Mac & Cheese, a hit for lunch and dinner.

Various types of food are available at Pop Meals for under RM15, ranging from local to Western.

According to the Communications Manager, Nurul Jamaluddin, customers can order delivery, dine-in, or take away via the mobile app. In addition to the customer suggestions, the in-house food development team can also review any new menu ideas and launch them in the outlets. 

Nurul also noted that Pop Meals takes user feedback and turns it into innovation, which is then displayed on “Top Hits” charts to keep the menu fresh. She also mentioned that they plan to open more concept stores in the Klang Valley as they expand into other states.

For the record, Doul’s Salted Egg Butter Chicken has topped the rankings for three consecutive weeks. 

“Our clients pick what’s popular, what food they want, and these meals remain on the chart and thus on the menu.” It’s fueled by sales figures and user feedback via the app.

Download the Pop Meals app today to satisfy your cravings, and follow Pop Meals’ Instagram to see your favorite foods on the chart.

Company Overview

Legal Name

Pop Meals 

Industries

Artificial Intelligence, Food and Beverage, Consumer Goods, Food Delivery, Robotics, Logistics, 

Founder(s)

Christian Edelmann, Jessica Li, Jonathan Weins

Founded Date

2015

Total Funding Amount

$27,020,000

Investors

21 Number of investors

  1. Socar Malaysia

In Malaysia (and recently in Indonesia), SOCAR Malaysia aims to transform car ownership by using a mobile app that allows users to book, unlock, and drive away a car by utilizing a mobile app. The app also provides an option enabling rental companies and private drivers to list vehicles for hire on its platform. 

Data and analytics are at the center of SOCAR’s ambitions. Mustafa Zaidi, the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), tells me that the company is creating a culture where employees are encouraged to investigate and analyze data to improve customer experience.

In the interest of improving customer experience, SOCAR has, in recent months, switched to a microservices architecture running on Amazon Web Services to comprehend better how customers use their platforms. Additionally, SOCAR implemented Confluent, a distributed event streaming solution based on Apache Kafka, so they can see what changes are happening in real-time. 

As a result, SOCAR employees can better understand their platforms’ interactivity, respond appropriately, and build more in-app features.

In specific ways, how we use data may differ from what you find in a corporate context,” CTO Zaidi says of SOCAR’s data strategy. For example, while we do have a data analytics team at SOCAR, there is an expectation from upper management that practically everybody in the firm should be able to access and evaluate important data.

We have a significant number of users who have access to our data warehouse and write and run queries, create dashboards, and perform analytics regularly.

As a result, we have a fairly open data model. And, to be honest, it’s been a bit of a culture shock for folks new to the company, who are startled at how open we are about granting our staff access to data. Our entire team is highly comfortable analyzing data regularly. “

When SOCAR used a monolithic database, they expected employees to always access data in real-time. As a result, the company needed a platform to continue to meet these expectations when it moved to a microservices architecture. 

Because of this, users can’t run simultaneous queries across multiple databases because there are various microservices running in the background. Therefore, confluent became essential in this situation. Zaidi explains: 

Confluent was initially used for analytics. We want to be aware, at any given moment, of the status of transactions on our platform. In other words, how can we make our data warehouse stream data from our databases in real-time? Confluent was able to help us resolve this problem. 

SOCAR will be able to shift to an event-driven architecture using Confluent, which means it will be able to stream data consistently and analyze any changes that have been made. Zuaidi continues: 

We use a process to ensure that any new service we offer is fully integrated into our data warehouse and that we build pipelines to make sure we incorporate that new service. 

At the same time, we’ll start working on the second element, which is creating an event-driven architecture. We’ve encountered many use cases where we believe that directly synchronous or asynchronous API calls aren’t the best solution; instead, we need to employ a message queue to handle the latency.

I’m hoping that we’ll have numerous Confluent-based event-driven architectural implementations by the end of the year.

An example will best show how this will improve the customer experience.

For example, if a user hires a car through the SOCAR Malaysia app and wants it delivered to their home, but there is a problem with the delivery service, the consumer will not complete the booking. SOCAR does not desire that, both booking rates and consumer satisfaction. As a result, the platform allows all delivery requests to be placed in a messaging queue, which will be efficiently processed using message brokers and Confluent, identifying any issues.

AS BEST AS POSSIBLE will move all SOCAR transactions to an event-driven and consistency-based architecture. The following is how Zaidi explains personalization will be possible in the future: 

The ability to stream events from our apps was a feature Confluent and Kafka enabled for us. When do users spend the most time on their computers? Which cars do they view the most? When reviewing a car, why do you book another? We have focused primarily on the final transaction, the time the user makes their reservation. 

“They can use this for a lot of different things. We are now analyzing user behavior in-app and bringing this to the next level. But we are hardly scratching the surface at this point. That leads us toward a more personalized experience. 

We’re looking at early use cases, such as when a user is considering a more expensive car model, but it isn’t within their budget right now, so they book a cheaper model. Could we target them with a real-time promo that encourages them to take the next step? We’re currently learning how to do this using the clickstream data enabled by Confluent’s Kafka platform as we evaluate and figure out what we can do.

Company Overview

Legal Name

Socar Malaysia

Industries

Car Sharing, Ride Sharing

Founder(s)

 

Founded Date

2017

Total Funding Amount

$18,000,000

Investors

2 Number of investors

  1. Lapasar.com

A B2B procurement company, Lapasar, offers a system similar to an e-commerce platform used by B2C companies where companies can shop for supplies for their businesses.

  • A day’s notice is enough for businesses to be able to make purchases instead of having to wait a week or more.
  • Thinesh Kumar and their friends founded the company in 2016 and started operations in 2017. By enabling deserving small businesses to become vendors throughout the country, the company aims to achieve its mission.

Business deals are often conducted conveniently. Every party wants to be able to do tasks promptly and without errors.

This is particularly true when purchasing and selling in large amounts; no one appreciates having to visit many merchants, deal with payment gateways, and risk a purchase gone wrong.

Lapasar wants to address this issue in the B2B sector by profitable businesses the benefits of saving time and money through an online procurement system that makes buying in bulk simple.

Thinesh Kumar, 28, a graduate in Business and Human Resources Management with experience running a medical device distribution company, founded Lapasar in 2016. He enlisted the help of four friends from his previous company to launch the startup.

Thinesh became interested in the medical device business after participating in a tender in 2016. Unfortunately, there was already a predetermined winner in the tender, meaning that all other participants had no business opportunities.

When his friends Lakshman Das and Sharath Bani and I discussed this matter, I had a breakthrough idea.

We believe that providing a purchasing system for corporations that offers equal chances to deserving vendors will be instrumental in rejuvenating the Malaysian economy.”

After collaborating with 30 companies to identify the pain points in corporate procurement, the team developed a prototype for their platform in 2017 and continued developing and improving it. As a result, the first version of Lapasar was created in August 2017.

Company Overview

Legal Name

Lapasar

Industries

Consulting, E-Commerce, Information Technology, Internet, Software

Founder(s)

Lakshman Das, Thinesh Kumar

Founded Date

2016

Total Funding Amount

$2,511,208

Investors

6 Number of investors

  1. pitchIN

To raise funds for business expansion and new business units, PitchIN will launch its equity crowdfunding campaign on 19 April 2021. Investors are expected to lend the company between $726,500 and $126,000 (RM3 million and RM5 million). As a rewards crowdfunding platform, pitchIN launched in 2012 and has never done a fundraising campaign. A separate institutional investor will invest RM5million in pitchIN.

Founder and CEO of pitchIN Sam Shafie say that the company has always been self-funded. Our platform has become Malaysia’s most popular equity crowdfunding platform. Through equity crowdfunding and an institutional investment of RM5 million, we are now raising RM3 million. We will use this fundraising to expand our team, launch a new product, introduce new services and expand our brand. We seek to be the one-stop platform that companies can use to raise funding through the products we offer to companies and investors.

The ECF platform had grown rapidly since the Securities Commission approved it in Malaysia in 2016 when it was launched. Founder and CEO of pitchIN, Ashminder Singh, believes that now is the right time to raise funds. Despite being a relatively unknown fundraising tool five years ago, ECF has become a popular choice among startups and small businesses. 

PitchIN is leading the ECF wave. We have run more than RM140 million in ECF campaigns so far. Capital needs continue to grow among companies. We hope to serve more investors and businesses by increasing our services and operations. This year, PitchIN will launch its ECF platform secondary market. The company has also applied for an IEO license.”

Due to regulations regarding fundraising on ECF in Malaysia, pitchIN will not be able to raise on its platform for its ECF campaign.

A lot of 10 shares in pitchIN require a minimum investment of RM 4,500. Investors who commit early will also receive incentives. Investors can receive bonus shares from pitchIN from 14 April to 3 May 2021. They will give 10% bonus shares to investors who invest 1 to 9 lots. 

10% bonus shares will be awarded to investors who purchase between 10 and 25 lots. Investors who invest more than 25 lots will receive 20% bonus shares.

The question of investing in pitchIN has been frequent over the years, says Sam. Now, investors have the chance to do so. We think investing in pitchIN is a good idea. Our company leads the industry. It is a fintech company with immense potential. In Malaysia alone, there are more than 900,000 SMEs. We are just at the beginning of our journey. PitchIN has prospects to unlock.”

Company Overview

Legal Name

pitchIN

Industries

Crowdfunding, Financial Services

Founder(s)

Kashminder Singh, Sam Shafie

Founded Date

2012

Total Funding Amount

MYR5,500,000

Investors

3 Number of investors

 

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