Open For Business

On this episode of Open For Business, we speak with Lakshita Wijerathne, CEO at Eutech Cybernetic, a Smart Technology solutions provider that owns Iviva, a full-fledged smart property management platform that enables efficient management of spaces, buildings and cities.

With over 20 years of experience and headquartered in Singapore, Eutech works with a global network of partners in 15 countries, seven smart precincts and cities as well as a 300m square footage area of spaces across Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. Their solutions are catered for owners and operators in the real estate industry with the Iviva platform.

Along the course of the conversation, Lakshita give us a sense of how Iviva was established, what differentiates it with other smart technology platforms in the market and what the future holds for Eutech in the foreseeable future.

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“To our surprise, we realised probably 6 or 7 out of 10 customers that walked in didn't really know us, (before that,) we thought we were famous. That was a huge awakening call”.

Founded in 2013 by Nicole Wong and Stan Chui, Sometime has evolved from an online-only business to a brand with multiple physical outlets and collaborations with designers across Asia.

In this episode of Open for Business, we speak with Stan Chooi, co-founder and CEO of the Malaysian fashion brand, Sometime. Stan shares his transition from the advertising industry to fashion, his partnership with Nicole Wong, the challenges of starting this business, and the rationale behind the brand's offline push. Stan also gets into the role of strategic partnerships and potential future considerations for funding and business expansion.

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In recent years, Malaysia has been faced with a rising student dropout rate, with over 14,506 students leaving school prematurely in 2023 alone. That’s according to the National Social Council. This alarming trend highlights the urgent need for innovative ways or solutions to keep students engaged and invested in their education.

With this in mind, MyFuturity Global aims to step in with an application, called StudentQR, designed to transform the education landscape through real-time monitoring and gamification.

In this episode, we speak with Syed Huzaifah Syed Omar, the Founder and CEO of MyFuturity Global, a company that specialises in mobile app content for various industries such as education and training, architecture, film and healthcare, who will share his insights on addressing this critical issue and how StudentQR aims to reshape the future of education in Malaysia.

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Founded in 2022, Patriot Biotech describes itself as a group of scientists, inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs who want to bring molecular-based biotechnology to the masses in Malaysia and the world, while nurturing and building local talent and technology.

Today on Open For Business, we explore the ambitions of this startup, their focus on genomics and its applications to aquaculture and value to academia and universities in Malaysia. We’ll also explore Gan's journey to Australia and back, and how that’s informed the way he’s built Patriot Biotech, why he left academia and a stable career, and how he’s built a bootstrapped and profitable business.

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“If there is a time to start a business, it is now, while we’re young.”

A lunch between co-workers in their mid-20s in 2014 turned into a startup that has raised RM46 million, is now close to profitability, and wants to generate RM80-90 million in revenue in 2024 powered by its growth in Indonesia.

In 2014, 5 months after an initial discussion over lunch in 2014, Goh Chee Hau and Nadhir Ashafiq started TheLorry. The goal was to connect drivers and their vehicles with business and consumer transport and logistics jobs, with the vision that this would all be powered by proprietary tracking, route optimization and payments technology.

With just a handful of drivers in the early days, today TheLorry is present in 4 countries in the region, namely Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, and partners more than 7,000 drivers who provide services like professional house moving, furniture dismantling and disposing, and B2B logistics.

The startup is no stranger to funding rounds. Back in 2016, it raised US$1.5 million in its Series A round, close to RM24 million in its Series B funding round in 2019, and most recently, RM4.1 million through ECF on pitchIN last year.

On this episode of Open For Business, you will learn about TheLorry’s origins and ambitions, their evolution over the last decade, and what the path ahead looks like for this Malaysian-born startup.

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In this episode of Open For Business, we venture into the advanced field of technology, focusing on engineering, manufacturing and product development with Projet Technology — a company founded out of a passion for tackling the complex challenges within its industry.

From reducing lead times and managing resource constraints to facilitating high mix low volume orders, Projet Technology is on a path to transform manufacturing for multiple industries including E&E/Semiconductor, Medical, and Aerospace.

We speak to Allen Tan, Founder & Managing Director, and Co-Founder Lua Yew Jin, of Projet Technology.

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In this episode, we speak with Dhawal Shah, Regional Managing Director and Co-founder of 2Stallions, a boutique digital marketing agency with headquarters in Singapore and teams across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and India.

Started with his schoolmate-turned-university friend Razy back in 2012, 2Stallions has spent over the last decade providing small businesses with digital marketing services to help them compete with the big guns without a big marketing budget. Among other things, the firm provides client-centric digital marketing solutions — from SEO, SEM, and Performance Marketing to Social Media Marketing and Website Development.

Along the course of this conversation, Dhawal gives us a sense of how his love for coding shaped his career and eventually led to starting up 2Stallions, what makes their business model unique in a competitive market as well as what’s in store for the company since the revamp back in April.

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We explore IWG Malaysia's ambitious expansion as they gear up to launch four new workspaces in the country. Two of these new centres will be situated in the Klang Valley, while the other two will find their home in Johor Bahru, catering to the growing community of hybrid workers. These new locations, representing Regus and HQ, will enhance IWG Malaysia's portfolio, providing a diverse range of workspace solutions to support businesses in their hybrid work arrangements. The launch, set between April and September, will further strengthen IWG's global presence, adding to its network of over 4,000 locations in 120 countries. Tune in as we uncover how these workspaces align with Malaysia's push for more employee-friendly models, offering insights into how IWG's expansion will shape the future of flexible work environments.

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“And I took that personally”. That was how the eccentric founder of Tokpork, Phon Yung Hou, felt when he was making RM300 a day in sales which paled in comparison to the others around him at Restoran Yum Me Place. There may have been a tease or two from the business owners around him that Tokpork was more hobby than business.

Phon wasn’t always in the business of selling Nasi Lemak, but with the support from his former boss Leon Foong, the former Uber Malaysia boss and then SOCAR Malaysia CEO, he eventually got into the nasi lemak business, after testing a few other food ideas. With Leon helping Phon with the stall deposit, Phon used his last pay-check from SOCAR as working capital and set up shop at a kopitiam in the Bukit Damansara, which he still operates from today. 

Things were tough at the start, but as he says in this conversion, “it’s about the game” and he wanted to continue to play it. In the early days Phon was only making RM300 a day in sales, but this all changed following a KL Foodie video which ignited his business. The morning after the video was released, Phon was sold out before lunch, even after preparing extra food.

In this episode, you will hear about the origins of this business in more detail and why he gave up his career to go into the ever challenging food business. We’ll also explore his larger ambitions, why he wants to go into entertainment (and what he means by that), and the long term ambitions to build Tokpork and eventually sell it.

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Connecting SMEs to investors, Capsphere claims that it sets itself apart from other similar players because each loan is asset-backed, or secured by an asset. Founded in 2016, the company targets businesses that have been in operations for over 1 year, with assets that can be used to secure the loan such as industrial equipment or even contracts.

Last financial year the firm generated RM355,000 in revenue on the back around RM6 million in new loans disbursed over 88 loan/notes. Looking ahead, the P2P financing platform aims to double revenue in FY2024 and again in FY2025, taking it to RM1.4 million, where it currently projects it will get to profitability.

In this episode of Open For Business, we dive into this venture’s origins and whether this model has enough of a differentiation in the P2P financing space to thrive. We’ll also dive into some of those targets and how they’re going to achieve them, as well as other ambitions ahead.

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