- Cyberjaya Startup Summit was held in The LaunchPad from May 12 to 13.
- The event had a mixture of talks, panel sessions, pitching sessions, and networking opportunities to bring the local entrepreneur scene closer.
As the rest of Malaysia adjusted to the new change in our government, the weekend of GE14 saw a new event being held in Cyberjaya.
On May 12 to 13, Pixaworks Creative and The Launchpad Co-working & Event Space launched Cyberjaya Startup Summit, which was organised to bring the local entrepreneur ecosystem closer.
Bringing The Community Together
The idea to launch Cyberjaya Startup Summit came when founder of Pixaworks Creative & The Launchpad, Inbaraj Suppiah, noticed that there weren’t many major startup events in Cyberjaya that was run by the community for the community.
So he wanted this event to be able to focus on an agenda that would be relevant for entrepreneurs in the area.
Held at The Launchpad Cyberjaya, the 2-day summit had a theme of “Sustainable Entrepreneurship” and was supported by Setia Haruman, MaGIC, Cyberview, Malaysia Debt Ventures, Soft Solvers Solutions, MDEC along with many other community partners.
The summit saw a line-up of 300 investors, founders, aspiring entrepreneurs, accelerators, corporate representatives, government agencies within the ecosystem and also from India and Taiwan.
52 prominent speakers from Malaysia’s startup ecosystem graced the event, bringing their vast knowledge and experience in building the ecosystem and growing successful startups.
There was also a small exhibition space with 16 exhibitors consisting of sponsors, partners and startups.
The main goal Inbaraj had set for this particular programme was to create a platform where attendees could learn new insights, network with fellow entrepreneurs & industry experts, recruit talent, secure funding, and much more.
Hence why the schedule was done in a way where it explored a variety of events, such as talks conducted by seasoned entrepreneurs, interactive panels relating to relevant topics happening within the entrepreneur scene, and even pitching sessions.
Some of the notable entrepreneurs that were present at the event to share their insights include Khailee Ng (Managing Partner of 500 Startups), Bikesh Lakhmichand (Founder of 1337 Ventures), and Ashran Dato Ghazi (CEO of MaGIC).
The topics that were discussed included themes from fintech, blockchain, funding, smart cities, iot, social entreprises, accelerators, digital marketing to even proptech and traveltech.
“Most of the participants appreciated the selected topics and how relevant they were to the startup community and also the quality of the speakers and panelists. Although Khailee’s talk was the most anticipated, some of the panel sessions were equally or at times more engaging,” said Inbaraj.
As Cyberjaya Startup Summit was held during election week, Inbaraj mentioned that the change in our ruling government did have an impact on the event.
“The panel sessions obviously discussed the new developments that might happen in their respective industries with the new government in place,” said Inbaraj.
“The panelists were also more open and straightforward with sharing their views. A new sense of freedom and openness were felt by everyone.”
Hosting A Demo Day
Aside from the panel discussions and networking sessions, Cyberjaya Startup Summit also hosted the demo day for the latest batch of 1337 Venture’s Accelerator programme.
The accelerator saw 10 chosen startups to undergo an intense 12-week acceleration process to bring their products ready-to-market as part of the Khazanah Nasional Entrepreneurship Outreach (KNEO) programme.
During the Demo Day, 4 out of the 10 startups were chosen to pitch their ideas to receive additional funding from Khazanah against 8 other startups.
The 4 that were chosen were BESC (a blockchain startup that helps businesses retrofit existing technology with much more energy efficient, and cost-saving technology), Homegrown Farms (a startup that delivers fresh vegetables at a lower cost by using aquaponic farming), pod (a startup that helps youths save money through spending) and Foodbike (a social enterprise that empowers marginalised communities by giving them the ability own their own business).
Doing It All Again
With the success of the 1st edition of Cyberjaya Startup Summit, Inbaraj is looking to potentially make it an inaugural event as his experience in running programmes of a similar vein has helped make this one particularly smooth sailing.
“I’ve organised many types of events before so I guess the previous learning and experience helped to keep everything running smooth. My team was on point, and we even managed to sort out some unavoidable delays to make sure the schedule was not disrupted,” said Inbaraj.
Based on the feedback he’s received, Inbaraj is looking to take things further and organise a bigger event next year, with more interesting speakers.
“We’ll stick to the same format of more panel sessions than talks, but with more time for speakers and audience to interact so that we can maximise the learning opportunity. We will still keep it affordable so everyone can benefit from this event,” said Inbaraj.
This article was written in collaboration with The Launchpad.
Feature Image Credit: The Launchpad
