The Bawatana Podcast

They say it’s a man’s world - yet according to Crunchbase, research has proven that despite female-led businesses generating greater returns than male-led businesses, only 2.3% of all VC funding go towards women. Some say women lack confidence, some say women are discriminated against. Our hypothesis is - could it be that the reason more male founders raise funding is simply because there are more male funders? According to Deal Street Asia, that seems to ring true as they have found 73% of VC firms in Southeast Asia don't have a single woman investment partner. This issue has sparked an industry-wide (and dare we say worldwide) debate on the lack of female representation on the cap table leading to fewer female founders receiving funding.

In this episode, we speak with three prominent Malaysian female investors Dr Melissa Foo Suyin (Vice President of the Malaysian Business Angel Network), Xelia Tong (Managing Partner of ScaleUp Malaysia) and Elain Lockman (CEO and Co-Founder of equity crowdfunding platform Ata Plus) as we discuss why women aren’t able to break into the investment scene, why women investors deserve to be at the cap table and their contribution towards better supporting women investors and founders.

We’d also like to thank our fellow female founders and special guests:

Sam Shafie and Kashminder Singh - more fondly known as Sam and Kash - are Co-Founders of Malaysia’s leading equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN. These gentlemen have been at the helm of democratising the investor space in Malaysia. Since its early days as a reward crowdfunding platform in 2012, pitchIN has and continues to make waves by holding some pretty cool accolades such as raising the most funds for certain projects as well as having the most number of backers for a single project. More admirably, we’ve been a fan of some of the more humanitarian efforts of their work including their successful execution of some groundbreaking crowdfunding projects including the first ever Indie festival in Penang called TAPAUfest, an on-demand movies Movie GoGo project, assisting flood victims in East Malaysia as part of MDEC’s social project and securing a permanent home for Wok It - a mobile kitchen that serves quick and customised meals to raise finances to build their kitchen.

As firm believers in the democratisation of fundraising and investing, they’ve enabled investors to invest in businesses they believe in and support the growth of some of the region’s most exciting startups including The Lorry, Oxwhite and Signature Market to name a few.

In this conversation, we talk about the entrepreneurial spirit of Malaysians, the 20% of companies that make it on pitchIN vs the 80% of companies that don’t, the foresight that Malaysia had over two decades ago and our progress to date, and the race to produce Malaysian unicorns.

Premiering on 13 October 2021, Hardesh Singh (Managing Partner) and Ayesha Rahman (Head of Market and Portfolio) of Bawatana launches The Bawatana Podcast - a monthly podcast dedicated to unearthing stories on startups, ideas and the culture of creating and making things in Southeast Asia.