- In conjunction with MaGIC’s focus on women empowerment in 2018, MaGIC has launched their Pre-Accelerator Bootcamp: Female Founders Edition.
- It will be a 2-week programme with accommodations provided, and a Demo Day for the top 15 participants.
- Registrations are open until May 21, 2018.
There have been significant strides made in the maturing Malaysian scene, but it seems like startups are still a man’s game.
Of the global companies that had an initial funding between 2009 to 2017, only 15.8% have at least one female founder, as studied by TechCruch.
This is an international study, but the numbers are quite telling. Women are either not jumping into startups, or the ones that do aren’t going up to an initial funding level.
The number of womenpreneurs has increased over the years in Malaysia as well, but according to MaGIC, they are usually unable to realise their true potential.
The reasons listed include societal perception, lack of equal opportunities, and a smaller funding size.
MaGIC wants to solve this issue with a female-centered bootcamp.
MaGIC today announced the launch of their Pre-Accelerator Bootcamp: Female Founders Edition—and registration is now open up until the May 21, 2018.
Traditionally, MaGIC’s Pre-Accelerator is open to all genders, but they’ve decided to limit it to women this time around to help uplift them and fill a need for more womenpreneurs.
A pre-accelerator is an entrepreneur’s chance to learn how to turn a concept into an MVP (minimum viable product), as long as they have a validated idea.
“To address this gender gap, we need to ensure that we understand the specific challenges which exist for womenpreneurs,” said Ashran Dato’ Ghazi, CEO of MaGIC.
“In trying to overcome these challenges we are doing our best to open up market access and provide more targeted support for women.”
The programme will be a platform for selected startups to turn their idea into investment-ready solutions. Participants will learn the basic startup fundamentals, go-to-market strategies, product development, business modeling, and others.
The two-week bootcamp will end with a demo day, and 15 of the best participants will be pitching their MVP to MaGIC’s lineup of investors.
On top of that, winners will get an extra 3 months of post-bootcamp mentoring, with a 3-month free tenancy at the MaGIC Co-working space for those months, and a company incorporation package.
This effort is also part of MaGIC’s Women Empowerment Year 2018, and with the government’s Women’s Empowerment Year 2018.
Update: According to MaGIC, they’ve decided to tackle the problem at a pre-accelerator level because “in MaGIC alone through our accelerator programs, we see more and more women founders and co-founders participating”.
“While the number of Malaysian women entrepreneurs has increased over the years, it still only accounts for only 20% of registered SMEs according to the SME Association of Malaysia.”
“This means that despite encouraging statistics regarding the involvement of women in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, women still lag behind in terms of becoming founders, or co-founders of startups.”
When asked about the types of businesses they’re looking forward to, MaGIC said that “for some of our growth stage programs, we are looking at channelling our activities to become more cluster-focused. For example, clusters such as Mobility, Energy, Agriculture, Health, and Smart City.”
But they are not limiting the types of ideas that they might consider, or seting any pre-conceived expectations on the types of business ideas.
“Rather, [we want to] look at how creative and innovative the ideas themselves are [at] solving and addressing key challenges within a specific market, ecosystem or even community. From there, these ideas can be shaped or sharpened into tangible business solutions. “
- Those interested can find the Apply Now button on this page, until May 21, 2018.
Feature Image Credit: MaGIC Cyberjaya
