MDV, Kenanga launch $73m Malaysia fintech fund

MDV and Kenanga will be joint managers, with each contributing MYR25 million to the stage-agnostic fund, according to a statement. The collaboration aims to draw on the capabilities of each organization in equity and debt financing of fintech companies and access to capital markets.

The investors said the fund would help advance Malaysia’s post-pandemic economy through technology ecosystem development. They added that venture debt and venture capital represent attractive and complementary strategies for achieving this goal.

This positioning fits in with the government’s technology-focused economic recovery agenda, including the MyDigital initiative launched last month. Broader industry reception to MyDigtial, which focuses largely on improving cloud, internet, and cybersecurity infrastructure, has been supportive but circumspect.

“What remains to be seen is whether the various stakeholders and partners on the ground are able to keep up with the pace of the suggested timeline, and if this blueprint is nimble enough to transition or bend given the rapid pace of technological change,” Sudev Bangah, a managing director for ASEAN at International Data Corporation, said following the release of the 104-page MyDigital document.

MDV, which is government-owned, added that fintech would be the “backbone” of the country’s digital transformation as well as the most promising segment in terms of returns. Growth in this space has been connected to the digitalization of the banking sector and the rise of e-commerce.

MDV was incorporated in 2002 with a MYR1.6 billion IT fund backed by Japan Bank of International Cooperation. It launched its third flagship fund in 2017 with a mandate to invest MYR4 billion in about 300 companies over the next 20 years.

Kenanga is the largest independent bank in Malaysia and has experience of technology investment in areas such as online stockbroking, robo-advisory, e-wallets, and digital asset exchanges. Last month, its private equity arm agreed to acquire 19% of licensed cryptocurrency exchange Tokenize Xchange. Previous activity in VC includes the launch of a pre-IPO fund in 2019.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Venture
• Fundraising
• Malaysia
• Fintech
• venture debt