Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 14, 2021 - June 20, 2021

Last week, it was announced that Dana Penjana Nasional — an investment fund set up by the government last year specifically for venture capital firms to invest in start-ups — had successfully raised RM850 million. Of this, RM433 million came from foreign investors.

Dana Penjana, operated by Penjana Kapital Sdn Bhd, is a matching funds-of-funds programme under the Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan, with a target allocation of RM1.2 billion aimed at incentivising private capital to facilitate the growth of start-ups.

Considering the total committed venture capital fund under management in Malaysia as at end-2020 was around RM4.4 billion, the target amount of RM1.2 billion to be invested from Dana Penjana alone is sizeable, and the RM850 million successfully raised last week was impressive.

However, all that was announced last week was that RM118 million had been approved for investment in nine start-ups, with three notable ones highlighted, but only with a description of the companies, the number of jobs the start-ups could create, the participation of other global investors, how some companies would relocate to Malaysia and the high-value knowledge transfer from Silicon Valley-trained personnel, among others.

As RM600 million of the allocation would come from the government, shouldn’t the beneficiary companies and the people behind these firms be disclosed? There should also be greater clarity as to the controls and governance that have been put in place to ensure the money is well spent.

Penjana Kapital’s website as well as the announcement make no mention of the directors or officials in charge of the programme. This is necessary to ensure accountability if something goes wrong.

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