Open For Business

A decade after pioneering equity crowdfunding (ECF) in Malaysia, why and how is pitchIN expanding beyond startup fundraising toward a complete private-to-public capital ecosystem? Kashminder Singh, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of pitchIN, joins Open For Business to discuss the platform’s evolution and ambitions as a digital funding hub serving mature, profitable enterprises alongside tech startups.

Kashminder shares how pitchIN navigated the post-pandemic "funding winter" by diversifying into corporate advisory services, initial exchange offerings (IEOs), and secondary market liquidity via PSTX 2.0. He also breaks down their upcoming peer-to-peer (P2P) debt financing rollout, strategic alignment with regulatory updates for LEAP and ACE market listings, and plans for executive succession and fresh capital raising.

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Supergulp is a bootstrapped functional beverage brand built on delivering scientifically recognised prebiotic fibres (specifically inulin and acacia gum) in a traditional soda format. Designed to address the high-carbohydrate, low-fibre diets prevalent across Southeast Asia, a single can delivers approximately half of an adult's recommended daily fibre intake. The strategic premise is straightforward: rather than forcing consumers to drastically overhaul their dietary habits, the company improves the nutritional profile of a product they are already drinking.

When founder Julian Koh last appeared on the show in October 2024, the brand was just months old and stocked in roughly 80 local outlets. Two years later, the business has aggressively scaled to over 1,000 retail locations across Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, with Thailand slated as the next target. Operating entirely without institutional funding, the seven-figure business has roughly tripled its revenue year-on-year and successfully achieved profitability by its second year of operations.

Julian returns to unpack the intense operational realities of this rapid two-year expansion. We discuss the distinct go-to-market strategies required to penetrate three completely different Southeast Asian markets, and the constant financial tension between reinvesting capital for aggressive growth versus maintaining profitability. Finally, we examine the increasingly crowded functional beverage space, and what it takes to defend market share as an early mover.

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Let's Coopi Roasters is a fully bootstrapped micro-roastery that recently expanded into its own commercial shoplot, the Coffee Lounge. Generating between half a million and a million ringgit annually, the business model relies heavily on B2B operations, with 70 percent of revenue driven by wholesale contracts. The company successfully supplies custom espresso blends and single-origin beans to cafes spanning from Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya to Terengganu and Brunei, while retail sales and specialized coffee education make up the remaining 30 percent of the business.

Operating with a collaborative mindset, founder Hamizah Hamzah is navigating the operational reality of scaling a wholesale business without yet owning her own roasting machine. Beyond the immediate economics of coffee, she is leveraging her previous seven-year career as a behavioural therapist through a strategic partnership with EmployAble. Together, they are developing targeted vocational and job-readiness training for neurodivergent teenagers and adults, aiming to solve the industry's manpower challenges while building a genuinely inclusive enterprise.

Hamizah joins us to unpack the complex margins of micro-roasting and how a bootstrapped F&B business sustains itself across wholesale, retail, and training divisions. We also discuss the untapped commercial potential of Malaysian Liberica beans - a crop that makes up 87 percent of local production but has long been dismissed as mere filler.

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RujukRent is a tenant screening platform built to verify a prospective renter's identity, employment, and rental history within three days, entirely with their consent.

Currently operating as a fully bootstrapped, solo venture, the platform operates on a pay-per-use model for landlords while remaining free for property agents. Despite its early stage, the business has already secured a strategic memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) and is actively developing a commercial leasing version of its product.

Founder Dinesh Venkitesan, a lawyer by training, joins us to discuss the harsh realities of building a data business in a market that severely lacks data. We unpack the strict legal parameters of what can and cannot be checked, the financial mechanics of a pay-per-use model without subscriptions, and the path to scaling a solo bootstrapped startup. We also discuss the competitive landscape, and the difficult question of whether tenant screening actually eliminates discrimination, or simply gives bias a spreadsheet to hide behind.

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WAY Sauce is a Malaysian brand that makes all-natural Nyonya, ready-to-use cooking sauces and pastes , including rendang, satay, and pulut lemak, with zero preservatives, MSG, or artificial additives. Certified to rigorous BRC, IFS, and Halal standards, the family business operates across both its proprietary brand and white-label OEM manufacturing, exporting to markets like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, the UK, and the United States. 

Despite this international footprint, the operational reality of producing all-natural products is incredibly challenging. Co-founder & COO Benson Tan joins us to discuss the intense financial squeeze of manufacturing FMCG goods, navigating the constant tension between volatile raw material costs and the hard price ceiling that retail consumers are actually willing to pay.

We also unpack securing shelf space in seven international markets, and the complexities of building products around Malaysia's most volatile ingredients. Benson also shares a blunt operational philosophy for F&B founders: know your exact numbers, and cut failing product lines fast before they drain the business.

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Asian Fried Chicken is an independent food and beverage business operating out of Seremban that offers a cleaner approach to comfort food. The menu features fresh, preservative-free, and MSG-free fried chicken paired with wholesome sides like broccoli quinoa and sweet potato fries. Having successfully survived its first 15 months - a critical milestone given that 60 percent of Malaysian F&B businesses close within their first year - the company is generating six-figure revenues and achieving intermittent profitability.

However, the operational reality of the business dictates that walk-in dining traffic alone is not enough to sustain growth. In response, founder Anandasingam Thuraisingam has executed a decisive pivot toward B2B catering, targeting corporate clients, schools, and hospitals. Following a successful partnership with the Negeri Sembilan Cricket Association, the business is doubling down on a specific niche: becoming Malaysia's premier sports, community, and event food partner. To fuel this transition and national ambition, the company is now actively seeking a strategic investor.

Anand joins us for a candid conversation about the financial and emotional realities of surviving the first year in the F&B industry. We unpack the ups and downs of cash flow management, the strategic necessity of moving away from a traditional retail dining room model, and whether fried chicken genuinely belongs in sports nutrition. 

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What does it mean for a business to contribute to nation building? For Merdeka, we speak to six Malaysian entrepreneurs working across urban development, STEM education, the creator economy, social enterprise, rural communities and financial inclusion, and explore how their businesses are helping to build a more prosperous business ecosystem in Malaysia.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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PurelyB is a wellness brand selling traditional Malay herbal supplements such as Pegaga and Tiger Milk Mushroom, formulated with Universiti Malaya-derived extracts. The company is actively expanding its physical footprint globally, establishing a US storefront, exhibiting at the Natural Products Expo West, and securing a finalist spot for the American natural products industry's highly watched NEXTY award.

However, the business model looked completely different a decade ago. PurelyB originally launched as a venture-backed digital wellness portal, amassing 80,000 monthly visitors, acquiring a yoga community platform, and raising funds through an equity crowdfunding campaign designed for its own readers. Founder Raja Jesrina Arshad eventually executed a massive pivot, completely transforming the company from a digital media platform into a physical consumer packaged goods business with inventory, manufacturing, and a complex rainforest supply chain.

Jesrina joins us to discuss the financial and operational costs of completely changing a business model. We explore what happened to the platform's early shareholders after the pivot, the margins of manufacturing physical supplements, and whether a Malaysian herbal brand can genuinely compete in the US wellness aisle.

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In February 2026, after twenty-three years as part of a London-headquartered global network, M+C Saatchi Malaysia completed a management buyout. The agency is now one hundred percent Malaysian-owned, led, and staffed, officially operating as M+C Saatchi KARSA. While they retain the Saatchi name under a licensing agreement, the agency’s strategic direction, profit and loss, and future are now entirely in local hands. 

For founder Datin Sri Sharifah Menyalara Hussein (Lara Hussein), this independence is not a safety parachute, but a liberation - a chance to operate with the agility of a startup, backed by over two decades of industry experience. Alongside Chief Creative Officer Darren Lee, the leadership team is actively rebuilding the traditional integrated creative agency into a consultancy model. They are executing this pivot while battling fierce industry headwinds, including cautious clients, eroding margins, competitors undercutting prices, and the rising trend of in-housing.

Datin Sri Lara and Darren join us to unpack the exact financial and operational mechanics of their management buyout, where the profit margins genuinely sit within their new consultancy arm, and whether Malaysia's creative economy can survive an era where clients increasingly want to do the work themselves.

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Friends Craft Cooperative is Malaysia's largest community craft centre, operating a successful pottery and wood studio in Seksyen 13, Petaling Jaya. The fully bootstrapped business executes three distinct models at once: renting affordable studio access to hobbyists, training apprentices from low-income backgrounds through a sponsored programme, and manufacturing commercial furniture and restaurant tableware. Through this diversified approach, the cooperative generates between half a million and a million ringgit in revenue and has doubled its growth every year for the past three years.

Founder Teoh Jia Chern operates the business with a sharp critique of the local artisanal space. He argues that much of the industry survives on "pity purchases" - expensive objects sold to T20 consumers and corporate CSR budgets entirely on the strength of the "handmade" label, rather than the quality of the product itself. Because this model relies on elite sustainability and a high price floor, it can never scale or deliver genuine impact. Friends Craft Cooperative was built to be the exact opposite, focusing on high-quality, scalable manufacturing that stands on its own merit.

Chern joins us to unpack the operational realities of running a three-in-one craft business and how they manage to compete with manufacturing giants like IKEA and Taobao. We explore the cooperative's highly unusual democratic profit distribution, and why Chern insists on earning the exact same salary as his senior team, and his strategic plans to make himself entirely replaceable.

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