Dan Lain-Lain (Malay for “and others”) is a weekly column by Tech in Asia journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa that dissects the goings-on in the Malaysia tech scene but with a heavy mix of current affairs, policy, and politics. Click here to read past articles.

Malaysia had a midterm review of its economic policy on Monday. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tabled the document in parliament that day and unveiled a number of revisions, including some that touched on tech and startups.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tabling the midterm review of the 12th Malaysia Plan on Monday / Photo credit: Afiq Hambali, Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia

This is a common affair in any government. Malaysia has a five-year development plan (called Malaysia Plan) and midway, a review is called to see what needs to be changed, retained, or improved upon.

Proceedings are public since they happen in the lower house of parliament. The review is also important because it’s held a month or two before the tabling of the national budget, which Anwar will do sometime next month.

Meantime, here are some key takeaways:

Money, money, money

Money makes the world go round, so this will be the first point: Anwar said his government has allocated 266 million ringgit (US$57 million) in grants this year for startups in a bid to farm unicorns, or startups valued north of U$1 billion. Of that sum, only 63.9 million ringgit (US$13.6 million) has been used.

Anwar also reiterated two things: the involvement of state-owned financial institutions – such as sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional – in investing in startups and the country’s target of raising five unicorns by 2025.

Malaysia already has one unicorn and six soonicorns as at end-2022, according to the review document, but it didn’t disclose the names of the startups that have achieved such status.

From news reports, we can assume that the unicorn here is Carsome. As for the soonicorns, there are a number of lists and the constant in many of these is drone services provider Aerodyne, which also received government investment of 20 million ringgit (US$4.2 million) for listing purposes.

The other recent go-to is the startups selected for the 100Soonicorns program, a tie-up between private and state-owned VCs and agencies.

Names in its recent cohorts include HR platform Kakitangan, logistics provider EasyParcel, and news aggregator Newswav.

It’s also worth noting that Anwar mentioned four startups he deemed “exemplary”: financial services provider Swipey, logistics firms TheLorry and EasyParcel, and ecommerce fulfillment platform iStore iSend.

There are currently 2,717 Malaysia-based startups across different stages, according to government data. The focus of government funding for startups this year, Anwar said, will be toward early-stage investors and firms. He added that his government would also work on a better five-year VC framework.

Beyond the urban bubble

The midterm review document also highlighted that startup development won’t be confined to urban areas but will also include rural and suburban parts of the country.

Policy continuity and then some