Enterprise Explores

Recent reports have revealed a startling prediction: as many as 4.5 million Malaysians could be out of work by 2030 if they don't upskill or reskill. This startling forecast arises from the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) across a variety of sectors, from manufacturing to healthcare and customer service.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What startups know about PR that large corporations seem to forget. Sometimes being scrappy and innovative does win the race.We’re helped through this conversation by Eugenie Chan from Suppagood.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A World Bank report revealed that only 54% of Malaysian micro and small enterprises use digital solutions, with this issue particularly prominent amongst women-led businesses which face additional barriers, including access to technology and financing.In line with this concern, earlier this week, The Asia Foundation in partnership with Mastercard launched Strive Malaysia, which wants to support the growth and digitalization of 100,000 Malaysian micro and small businesses, with a particular emphasis on women-owned and women-led businesses.Today on Biz Bytes we explore the challenges that women-led and owned small businesses face and what can be done to better support them and address the gaps that are present in the ecosystem.Helping us with this discussion were Sharifah Shahirah Idid, Program Lead at the Asia Foundation, who’s leading Strive Malaysia, and Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin, Managing Director of MADCash, an initiative that provides access to micro-funds for women entrepreneurs that want to upgrade a micro business. She was also the President of WENA (Women Entrepreneur Network of Malaysia) for 2018-2022.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the world becomes increasingly competitive, internships serve as a vital springboard for students to transition from academia into the professional world. Internships offer an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience, develop key skills, and build valuable networks. But in Malaysia, are they achieving what they promise? A recent working paper by the Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) throws some light on this issue.Photo Credits: FreepikSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, Carsome announced that following its new financing round, its liquidity position rose to US$200 million (around RM922 million). This announcement comes after the Malaysian Unicorn received backlash and criticism for apparently petitioning the Ministry of Finance to recommend Malaysia's sovereign wealth funds, government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and GLCs to invest in Carsome.The company issued a statement to clarify that it wasn’t soliciting or petitioning the Ministry of Finance for funding, but that it instead was encouraging Malaysian institutional participation.Carsome’s CEO and Co-Founder Eric Cheng joins us to get into concerns and criticisms around their latest funding round, the makeup of their $200 million liquidity position, IPO plans, and the reported request of the Ministry of Finance to encourage investment from Malaysian GLCs and GLICs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Direct-to-Consumer brands are all about going direct to the customer and acquiring them, bypassing middlemen and traditional distribution channels like agency forces and retailers, but this may have been much tougher than anticipated. While DTC brands like Warby Parker and Spotify were some of the hottest names in tech, in recent times the tone has become more pessimistic, even B2C fintech companies like Robinhood and Klarna haven’t been spared from this. Today on BizBytes we take a local look by speaking with Wong Wai Ken, Malaysia Country Manager of wealthtech player Stashaway, and Jonathan Ong, Head of Direct-to-Consumer with Indonesian insuretech Qoala, about how are both these fintech players are navigating the current environment, but also a look back at how they entered and built up their businesses here and how their strategies have evolved since entering Malaysia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The food and beverage sector is no stranger to hardships and obstacles, but a looming potential challenge in the form of rent increases threatens to stir the hawker industry pot. A recent situation involving hawkers in Penang, highlights the enormous implications of such a move, painting a concerning picture for food stall owners everywhere.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether you are a fan or not, the buzz and growth of AI doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon, especially with the money being pumped in. Today on Biz Bytes, we take a look at this topic from 2 angles - how we can tap into AI to improve productivity, but also a look at the potential downsides of using AI at work.We start the show by exploring the potential downsides of AI on the back of a recent study that sheds light and validates concerns of this new technology, which includes employees experiencing loneliness and insomnia. We dive into the study with Ke Micheal Mai, one of the authors of the study and Assistant Professor of Management and Organisation at National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School.On the productivity side, following comments from Blackrock CEO that AI’s productivity gains could save the US from inflation, we explore ways you can to tap into ChatGPT and generative AI tools to help improve productivity. That’s a conversation we had with Pang Sern Yong, Founder of AIHQ, a training and consultancy service provider that focuses on ChatGPT and AI tools, who is also the founder of the ChatGPT Community Facebook group that’s 13,000 members strong.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, the Malaysia Co-Investment Fund (MyCIF) announced that it had co-invested RM638 million in 3,635 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), in 2022, helping fuel their growth and developmentIn the last few years, ECF and P2P platforms have continued to grow its presence here in Malaysia, seeing an increase of 26% on-year to RM1.7B in 2022, as noted by the Securities Commission (SC) in its 2022 Report.Given the growth of this industry, today on Enterprise Biz Bytes, we speak to industry players and observers about the role of MyCIF, the current state and future potential of ECF and P2P-finacing platforms in Malaysia, and how they’ve changed the funding landscape for MSMEs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plenty of money is being thrown at AI startups as shown by PitchBook data released in March, but last week’s announcement from Mistral AI has blown all those deals out of the water.Last week French technology and AI company Mistral AI announced that it raised a $113.4 million seed round, just a month after being set up. Sources close to the company that spoke to American tech and portal Techcrunch confirmed that the value of Mistral AI at around $260 million.Mistral AI is co-founded by alums from Google’s DeepMind and Meta and will be focusing on open source solutions and targeting enterprises to create what CEO Arthur Mensch believes is currently the biggest challenge in the field: “To make AI useful.”So is this $113 million investment into Mistral AI genius, delusional, or stupid?We discuss this with Kevin Brockland, Founder and Managing Partner of Indelible Ventures - a VC that targets seed stage, tech-enabled B2B startups in the region. We get into whether this kind of valuation is justified, what VCs consider when they make huge bets like this, how much FOMO factors into a deal like this, the common misconceptions people have about the VC business, and how much a founding team factors into a startups valuation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.