Malaysia’s Axiata launches $30m fund with Mavcap
Malaysian telecom conglomerate Axiata Group has partnered with Malaysia Venture Capital Management (Mavcap) to set up a MYR100 million ($30 million) VC fund to invest in Malaysia’s digital services companies.
The Axalata Digital Innovation Fund (ADIF) is expected to become Malaysia's largest digital corporate VC fund. Axiata will commit a total of MYR50 million while Mavcap will invest MYR20 million, with the remainder to be raised from other investors.
The fund, which is managed by Mavcap, Teak Capital and Questmark Capital, will focus on investing in digital start-ups in the e-commerce, advertising, financial technology, and healthcare sectors, providing funding, know-how and market access.
The fund will specifically target start-ups run by Bumiputera - indigenous Malaysians. It is expected to build 5-10 leading regional digital services businesses by 2020.
Encik Jamaludin Bujang, Mavcap's CEO, said in a statement that the new fund is in line with the firm's objective of increasing funding for start-ups, while reducing dependence on government funding.
"We hope that with this initiative, more Malaysian corporations will realise the value in actively investing and participating in venture capital funds. This is more crucial for Malaysian multinationals to remain competitive in the face of fiercer competition from their foreign-owned counterparts as the economy becomes more liberalized in the future," he added.
Established in 2001, Mavcap is controlled by Malaysia's Minister of Finance. Last year, the VC firm launched a $200 million investment fund platform that will back technology-based companies at home and aboard. Mavcap agreed to allocate $100 million to funds run by four selected venture capital firms, each of which will then raise a minimum of $25 million.
Axiata controls mobile operators in Asia under different brand names, including Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, Robi in Bangladesh, Smart in Cambodia, Idea in India and M1 in Singapore. The group has over 13 million customers in Malaysia and over 250 million across Asia.
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