Open For Business

Owning a hotel sounds glamorous, but beneath the surface lies a high-risk, capital-heavy, and often misunderstood business. Dr. Timmy Ho, Managing Director of Pragmatique, a boutique hotel asset management consultancy, joins us to break down the realities facing hotel owners in Malaysia.

Since 2021, Pragmatique has guided hotel owners through the entire investment cycle, from site selection and financing to operations and eventual exit. In this conversation, we explore:

• What hotel asset managers actually do (and why they’re often called “nannies” and “whip crackers”)

• Why many hotels underperform financially, and what investors often get wrong

• The structural fragility of Malaysia’s hotel market, including oversupply and stagnant room rates

• How Pragmatique helps clients benchmark performance, reduce waste, and plan for the long haul

• Why this boutique consultancy focuses on depth over scale, and how it plans to grow organically through like-minded collaborators

Whether you’re a property developer, investor, or just curious about what it really takes to make hotels work, this is one for the playlist.

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In 2009, JWC started as a small café in Johor with just 16 seats. Today, it has grown into an eight-figure, multi-company coffee group with retail outlets, a coffee academy, a roastery, and a fast-growing wholesale business. In this episode, we speak with Nelson Lai, Founder & CEO of JWC Global, and Michael Tan, Wholesale Director of JWC Roastery, about this company's journey from bootstrapped beginnings to building an integrated coffee ecosystem.

We dive into:

• How JWC grew from a café into an 8-figure, multi-vertical business.

• The surprising profitability of their coffee academy.

• Their wholesale growth strategy, from five to seven figures.

• How JWC tackles supply chain risks through direct sourcing.

• Expansion ambitions, including exports, regional markets, and future fundraising.

Discover how JWC balances coffee craft, business scale, and people development to grow Malaysia’s homegrown coffee presence at home and abroad.

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Today, on Open for Business, we speak with SEEd.Lab, QuinTerra and ArtsProud , three entities using business as a force for good.

QuinTerra is tackling food waste by using black soldier flies to break down organic waste, paired with aquaponic farming to grow food more sustainably. Meanwhile, ArtsProud helps seniors reconnect through the power of art. Using music, movement, and creativity, their programmes lift spirits, sharpen minds, and combat loneliness. And at the heart of it all is SEEd.Lab, the platform helping ideas like these grow into real-world solutions. This is a conversation about purpose, passion, and solving everyday problems in ways that make life a little better for everyone.

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iPay88 Co-Founder Chan Kok Long reflects on over 20 years building one of Malaysia’s pioneering fintech companies; sharing lessons from the exit, self-actualisation, and his new beginnings in MedTech.

Chan looks back on overcoming early skepticism toward digital payments in 2006, navigating a strategic acquisition by Japan’s NTT Data in 2015, and what made it a “good exit”, in this view. He also explains why he stayed on for nearly a decade post-acquisition.

We also explore Chan’s next chapter, a new mission in medical technology aimed at making healthcare, especially wound care, more accessible and affordable for all Malaysians. Drawing from personal experiences, Chan shares why this pivot matters to him and his vision of positioning Malaysia as a medical tech hub for Southeast Asia.

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In this episode, we speak with Nisha Paramjothi, founder of EnPrivacy, a B2B SaaS platform focused on tackling data privacy risks in the era of public LLMs and AI. We dive into the story behind EnPrivacy, from its inception to the real-world challenges of building a startup at the intersection of AI and compliance. Nisha shares insights into the mission driving the platform, the hurdles they’ve encountered along the way, and what’s next as they aim to shape the future of responsible AI use in business.

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In this episode, we explore the future of retail with Shaji Rajappan, COO and Co-founder of Retailetics — the startup behind ezyCart, an AI-powered self-checkout solution aiming to transform the supermarket experience. Born in 2018 from a vision to solve inefficiencies in traditional retail, Retailetics combines machine learning and computer vision to bring smart, seamless shopping to brick-and-mortar stores. Shaji shares the journey behind building a retail tech startup in Southeast Asia, the challenges of scaling hardware and software in tandem, and how Retailetics is shaping the next wave of consumer experiences through automation.

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Founded in 2006, Infobip quietly powers some of the world’s biggest brands, including Meta, Uber, and Microsoft, across more than 70 offices worldwide. CEO and Co-Founder Silvio Kutić joins us to unpack how Infobip bootstrapped its way to a billion euros in revenue before ever raising external capital, becoming Croatia’s first unicorn after a $200 million equity round in 2020.

We explore the company's early struggles, its pivot to a full-stack cloud communications platform, and the cultural foundations that enabled Infobip’s disciplined, international growth. Silvio also shares insights into Infobip’s strategic acquisitions, its competitive advantages in an evolving CPaaS market, and the role AI will play in future customer engagement.

Plus, we dive into how North America and Asia-Pacific fit into their global ambitions, their views on profitability, and whether an IPO could be on the horizon.

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In 2024, Razer Fintech rebranded to Fiuu, marking a bold new chapter for one of Malaysia’s largest B2B payment platforms. But why walk away from a globally recognized brand like Razer?

In this episode of Open For Business, Eng Sheng Guan, CEO and Co-Founder of Fiuu, shares the company’s 20-year journey, from pioneering e-commerce shopping carts in the early 2000s to processing over RM44 billion in transactions annually across eight markets today.

We explore the strategic rationale behind the rebrand, Fiuu’s growth from NetBuilder to MOLPay to Razer Fintech, and how the company is positioning itself against global giants like Stripe and Adyen.

He also unpacks Fiuu’s unique advantages, including custom infrastructure, high transaction success rates, and a cloud-driven scaling strategy, while shedding light on their future expansion plans into Indonesia, Singapore, and beyond.

With sights set on breaking into 9-figure USD revenue and navigating emerging trends like AI and seamless payments, Fiuu’s story offers insights into the evolving payments landscape in Southeast Asia.

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We take a flavourful dive into the world of Korean fried chicken with Terry Goh, CEO of KyoChon Malaysia. From its South Korean roots in 1991 to its Malaysian debut in 2014, KyoChon has become a household name in Malaysia’s F&B scene, now boasting 36 outlets nationwide. Terry shares the story behind the brand’s expansion into Malaysia, the strategies that fueled its rapid growth, and how KyoChon continues to stand out in an increasingly crowded and competitive market.

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From humble beginnings selling pancakes and hustling through odd jobs, to building one of Malaysia’s most recognisable names in sport climbing, Camp5 is a brand that has helped shape the climbing ecosystem here and across Southeast Asia.

As they celebrate 20 years in the business, we speak with Patrick Andrey and Jeremy Peet, Co-Founders of Camp5, about the early struggles, finding product-market fit in an unfamiliar landscape, and how climbing has gone from niche hobby to Olympic sport.

We also dive into the launch of the Asian Climbing Summit, the future of climbing in Asia, and why building a tight-knit community is still at the heart of everything they do.

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