Local startup investment company NEXEA Angels Sdn Bhd and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) have renewed of their partnership agreement for the Entrepreneurs Programme (EP).

EP is a platform for entrepreneurs to form journey-enriching connections with peers and like-minded individuals to gain fresh perspectives and learn from one another through the sharing of ideas, advice, best practices and experiences.

As part of the partnership deal, MDEC will provide programme sponsorship for 32 participants and will funnel potential high-growth startup founders from their startup database into the programme.

MDEC and NEXEA first entered into an agreement to pilot the Entrepreneurs Programme early this year and have found it to be a proven success amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Managing Director of NEXEA, Ben Lim says, “The programme provides a facilitated peer network to guide founders in navigating these stressful times and our pilot proved to be a success with our in-programme participants recording positive QOQ numbers for revenue growth as well as headcount, indicating the positive impact EP has on the overall wellbeing of these startups.”

“MDEC believes that it is even more crucial for us to extend our support to as many startups as possible and provide them with the much-needed investment, mentorship, and training opportunities,” said VP of MDEC’s Digitally-Powered Business Division, Gopi Ganesalingam. “With such impressive outcomes from the first batch this year, we look forward to even stronger impact through this renewed partnership.”

The programme’s evergreen syllabus allows for it to run interminably and aims to guide participants all the way to an IPO stage.

EP participants convene in groups of 15 once a month for a full-day meeting to collaboratively work through business issues faced by these business leaders, discuss own challenges for practical solutions from the group and reflect on valuable feedback.

EP currently has over 40 startup founders and CEOs participating. As of October 2020, 23 participating startups recorded a combined startup valuation of RM243,000,000 and bagged a combined total of RM30,530,000 in startup funding.

The 23 startups have a combined employee count of more than 300 and are projecting RM62,706,343 in combined revenue for Q3 with a 26.29% overall increase in revenue.

Existing participants include Poladrone, KwikCar, LaPasar, Printcious, SoftSolvers Solutions, Lokein, Mobi, Zcova, Running Man among others.