KUALA LUMPUR: Pre-seed funding organisation Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd is now offering to finance technopreneurs who are ready to commercialise their products.
The programme, which will start from next month, will disburse funds in packages of RM500,000 each.
High-performing technopreneurs will be considered for an additional RM500,000, announced Cradle.
“There is a gap now between the pre-seed and commercialisation stages, so this latest fund is a bridge to that divide,” Cradle chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan told In.Tech.
With it, he said, technopreneurs will have access to funding all the way from conception to commercialisation.
“But it is exclusively for commercialisation exercises. We don’t want this fund to be used for product development because there are already many of such grants around,” Nazrin said.
He said the new fund’s function may seem similar to a venture-capitalist system, but the exception is that Cradle does not opt to take an equity stake in the company it helps finance.
“The fund is a conditional grant where the companies that meet with success are required to pay back the full amount,” he explained.
Cradle said the commecialisation funding would also help technopreneurs survive in the marketplace during the critical one- to three-year period that they are vulnerable as a new business venture.
It prides itself on having the highest commercialisation rate (48%) among venture capitalists (VCs) in the country. It hopes the new fund will lead to even bigger success stories among local technopreneurs.
“We want to hear about a VC-funded project that makes it all the way to IPO (initial public offering) and this fund will help bring this about quickly,” Nazrin said.
Long fight
The introduction of this commercialisation fund is a personal victory for Nazrin, who has being lobbying for it over the past eight years.
“Innovation is about creation and commercialisation. Without commercialisation, its merely an R&D exercise,” he said.
For the innovation ecosystem to exist, Nazrin explained, there needs to be a process where budding technopreneurs can get complete funding — from idea conception all the way to commercialisation.
In recent years, he said, the (negative) effect of focusing too much on R&D previously, began to show.
“While a lot of money was pumped into R&D, the output did not rise. We had this surplus of ideas but they didn’t reach commercialisation,” he said.
Nazrin hopes technopreneurs will take advantage of the new fund. “It is a one-of-a-kind opportunity in this region and technopreneurs should take advantage of it,” he said.
For more information on Cradle funds, go to www.cradle.com.my.
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