PENANG Youth Development Corporation (PYDC), together with Vincaps Capital and Big Domain, today, are organising an accelerator programme for young start-ups in Penang.
PYDC general manager Dr Gwee Sai Ling said the six-month programme, which is open to all Malaysian youths, commences from April and ends in October this year. Recruitment starts from now until March 31.
She said there would be physical as well as online sessions for the participants and mentors.
“The objectives of this programme are to strengthen the start-up ecosystem, create more businesses within the Penang sphere, and attract talents and retain them in Penang.
“This programme will focus on three areas, namely money, mentor and market.
“With the help of industry players, the young entrepreneurs will be equipped with the knowledge that they need to know for them to venture and secure opportunity for funding from potential investors.
“The six-month course and guidance from mentors is priceless. So, I encourage them to grab this opportunity to take part,” Gwee said in her speech.
On the part of the participants, she said the most important requirement is their commitment. Hence, a small fee is required. The commitment fee for every project is RM250 for students and RM500 for non-students.
The organisers are limiting it to 20 projects, with one project must have a maximum of five participants.
She said there are four targeted industries for the start-ups.
They are E-Commerce (sites with business from retail or solely e-commerce), Internet of Things (devices of any kind that can improve lives of humans), Essential Industries and Technologies (not limited to tech but any essential businesses that have potential or even have plans to adopt the technology) and Gaming and E-sports (e-sports management, e-sports and games merchandise sales companies).
Towards the end of the programme there will be a demo day for the participants to pitch their business idea to potential investors.
State Youth and Sports Committee chairman Soon Lip Chee, who launched the programme at the Jens Hotel today, said it was a follow-up to their successful Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge that was initiated by the Penang government since 2020.
He said although there are a few Penang-born start-ups that have been big corporations and brought fame to Penang, many others face tough challenges.
Hence, he said these young entrepreneurs need support to sustain in this challenging world.
“Starting start-up companies is not easy. It requires a lot of business knowledge like marketing, financial, networking and many more and most importantly, a lot of funding.
“With this accelerator programme, the start-ups that participate will be taught all the knowledge they need and given the chance to expand their networking.
“Even though there is no guarantee that all the projects will secure funding, it depends a lot on their innovation and creativity. This is truly a golden opportunity for start-ups, especially the youth in Penang,” Soon said in his speech.
Also present were PYDC assistant general manager Ng Hooi Ting, PYDC senior programme executive Samantha Tang, Vincaps Capital managing partner Kevin Yam, Big Domain founder and chief executive officer Henry Tye, and mentors Veronica Kong, a digital strategist from Brandbucket Resources, and Epnox Technologies CEO cum project director Jun King Sze.
Yam said he hoped that the programme would be able to reach out to more start-ups across Malaysia.
“My startup journey started at the humble beginnings in Penang where I first owned a tech company before flourishing to being one of the startup funding consulting firms to have successfully raised fundings worth RM22 million within our first financial report.
“We help investors to scout, verify and mentor the chosen startups to success,” Yam said.
Tye said they were also glad to support the state’s initiative to help create more start-ups.
“We hope more start-up success stories can be told,” he said.
To know more about the Penang Start-up Accelerator Programme, kindly visit https://go.pydc.my/startup
For inquiries, contact PYDC senior programme executive Samatha Tang (+60 14 – 901 6968) or email: [email protected].
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Chan Kok Kuan