I am pleased to be here today to announce the launch of an incentive fund specially customized for tech startups in Penang. Penang sets up the USD1 million Industry 4.0 (I4) Seed Fund to realise our potential to build, attract and retain talents to spur the tech starts up ecosystem to realise Penang’s potential as one of the Silicon Valleys of Asia.
As we all know, tech startups today have taken the world by storm. A critical component for the continued and sustained success of Penang is embracing tech start-ups and Industry 4.0 including Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Fintech, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things (IOT). We also seek convergence in the public, manufacturing and services sector to enable us to partake in the 4th Industrial Revolution.
We also see a convergence with the existing world-class electronics cluster as Penang can become a leading knowledge cluster in Malaysia with our 3 T’s of talent, technology and tolerance of new ideas. Penang has the 3 T’s necessary to establish a creative cluster, talent availability, technology to push forward and tolerance of new ideas that encourages innovation.
With over 45 years of cumulative industrial experience and over 300 MNCs and 3,000 local supporting companies in Penang, the State has an established an E&E ecosystem that is well integrated in the global supply chain. From 2008-June 2017, 1/3 of E&E investments are in Penang and this is supported by the fact that Penang holds 8% contribution of global back-end semiconductor output.
Recognizing this, the State, in Oct 2015, established the @CAT Penang, which is the accelerator for creative, analytics and technology to catalyse and further develop the startup eco-system in the State. @CAT Penang’s launch pad is located at Wisma Yeap Chor Ee in the CBD, George Town. For this purpose, PDC invested RM23 mil in the rehabilitation and rejuvenation of this 100 year old building. A total of RM75 million has also been spent since 2008 to promote STEM education – Science Technology Engineering and Maths, including RM6 million to give coding classes to 120,000 primary and secondary students.
BBC’s report on tech startups (22 Jan 2018) already cited Penang as the regional hardware hub and Asia’s Silicon Valley. BBC quoted that “Penang is Asia’s Silicon Valleys” by mentioning that Penang is punching well above its weight in the tech world through hardware manufacturing. Equating Penang to the way Silicon Valley developed, local engineers from big tech manufacturers are leaving to strike out on their own, creating a growing ecosystem for tech start-ups. Examples of successful “Powered in Penang” startups include Vitrox, Aemulus (both are now public listed companies), Exabytes, Piktochart and Cytron.
Moving forward, the State recognizes that the startup eco-system has reached a critical phase where further incentives in the form of financial support from the State is needed to further accelerate this sector to the next level. I am thus pleased to announce the establishment of a Industry 4.0 Seed Fund (I4) for tech Startups of USD 1 mil for 2018 funded by the State Government
This I4 Seed Fund will be managed by investPenang via @CAT Penang. An evaluation committee will be set up to further determine eligibility criteria, application, evaluation, award, disbursement, monitoring, review mechanisms and relevant terms and conditions.