MDEC, Cradle Fund clear up 6 doubts about Malaysia's unicorn agenda

MALAYSIA, 22 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

Malaysia’s push to cultivate five home‑grown unicorns by 2030 came under scrutiny at Wild Digital SEA 2021, where officials from Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Cradle Fund addressed persistent doubts about whether government agencies can deliver on the targets set out in the MyDIGITAL blueprint.

The MyDIGITAL blueprint, launched earlier in 2021, sets three headline goals for the end of the decade: creating 5,000 new companies, growing or attracting five unicorns, and digitalising 875,000 micro, small and medium enterprises.

Scepticism has lingered in the startup community since the plan’s unveiling, particularly after Malaysia went from zero unicorns to three in a single year — Carsome, AirAsia Digital and edotco Group — raising questions about whether the milestone reflected structural progress or a one‑off convergence of capital and timing. Gopi opened the discussion by framing unicorns as more than valuation milestones.

“And if you look at unicorns, the spill‑over effect is the job creations, the supply chain — the ecosystem a unicorn brings together,” he said, citing a Startup Genome report that found a unicorn increases the value of its surrounding ecosystem by ten times.

Rafiza added that the symbolic weight of unicorns matters for early‑stage founders: “Unicorns could also inspire budding entrepreneurs and growing startups to keep going.” Dhakshinamoorthy likened the effect to the Apollo programme, noting that sending a few people to the moon catalysed the global aerospace industry.

Both speakers acknowledged that, prior to MyDIGITAL, the agencies tasked with nurturing startups — MDEC, Cradle Fund and others — operated largely in isolation despite being “just a phone call away from one another.” Gopi said the blueprint has forced a shift from individual key performance indicators to a shared national objective.

Rafiza, who described herself as “the new kid on the block,” said she had observed the ecosystem for years and believed this was the first time she had seen all agencies “really communicating and working with one another.” On the funding front, the officials argued that capital is no longer a binding constraint.

Penjana Kapital, incorporated in 2020 to operationalise the Dana PENJANA Nasional programme, had raised RM850 million by June 2021 — exceeding its RM288 million target by 3.7 times — with 55 per cent of the total coming from foreign investors. Other agencies are also working to promote Malaysian startups abroad and attract overseas venture capitalists to the local market.

Talent retention emerged as the most contested issue. Dhakshinamoorthy relayed feedback from founders during the pandemic who described talent as scarce and costly. Gopi pushed back on the scarcity narrative. “I joined MDEC in 2015 and I’ve always noted the fact that Malaysia has lots of talent, whether that’s entrepreneurial talent or talents that support entrepreneurs,” he said.

He pointed to the banking and financial services sector, where Malaysian firms support major institutions outside Southeast Asia, as evidence of the country’s capacity to produce high‑calibre professionals. The problem, he argued, is retention: “So, the truth of the matter is that we produce good talent, but we don’t retain them very well. We also don’t retain our entrepreneurs very well.

Coming back to the blueprint, that is exactly what it is trying to address.” Rafiza concurred, noting that many Malaysian talents are now based overseas but remain willing to contribute. “We have the talent, but they’re not necessarily in Malaysia,” she said, adding that she had received inquiries from abroad about how to support local agencies and companies.

Gopi reinforced the point: “So, you can get talent from anywhere, even the best talent — if you can afford them — through any platforms.” He also noted that larger companies have begun offering higher starting salaries to fresh graduates, creating a new incentive for talent to stay.

Cradle Fund, for its part, tracks three internal metrics for every grant recipient: job creation potential, the likelihood of securing follow‑on funding as a proxy for longevity, and contribution to gross domestic product. Rafiza disclosed that eight out of ten private limited companies (Sendirian Berhad) backed by Cradle Fund remain operational.

The agency’s data shows a minimum job creation multiplier of 7.36 times per grant recipient, a figure that excludes the gig economy and Grab, which Rafiza characterised as an “outlier.” On the GDP side, every ringgit of grant capital generates a 3.35‑times multiplier in GDP contribution. “So, for every RM500K [in grants], we get a GDP contribution of RM1.5 million,” Rafiza said.

Information fragmentation remains a practical barrier for founders trying to navigate the ecosystem. To address this, Cradle Fund was allocated RM20 million to build MYStartup, a collaborative platform intended to aggregate data from public and private agencies. “It will save time for startup founders to focus on running their business and will allow them to find IP lawyers, investors, support, mentors, jobseekers, etc.,” Rafiza said.

A minimum viable product of the site is expected by the end of November.

Related: MDEC · Cradle Fund · Gopi Ganesalingam · Malaysia