Microsoft, MDEC and MaGIC Aims to Nurture Malaysian Unicorns Through New Partnership
by Fintech News Malaysia October 19, 2020Microsoft Malaysia in partnership with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) have launched the Highway to a 100 Unicorns initiative.
This move is said to be part of a joint effort to strengthen the nation’s startup ecosystem and empower local startups with mentoring, technology, and access to enterprise clients.
Eligible startups will gain access to focused workshops on business and technology, as well as monthly knowledge-sharing webinars with the global startup community.
Additionally, the top startups from Malaysia will stand to gain from an intensive year-long mentorship programme, access to enterprise clients as well as engagement opportunities with Microsoft experts and industry leaders.
The criteria for startups to apply for Emerge X is as follows; B2B companies with product-market fit and revenue-generating with at least 3-4 clients, B2C companies with a large customer base (upward of 100K customers) and are revenue-generating, they added that, having securing funding is a plus.
All Emerge X startups will be awarded free GitHub and Azure credits and focused business and technology workshops, focused workshops on technology and business.
Additionally, the finalists will benefit from a year-long mentorship with technical and business deep dives, a Founder Bootcamp over 3 days, access to enterprise clients globally through Microsoft’s co-sell programme as well as opportunities to interact with Microsoft experts and industry stalwarts. Applications close on 31 October 2020.
The top finalists from Malaysia will be announced in November, joining other shortlisted innovators and entrepreneurs from 16 other Asia Pacific countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Highway to Unicorn programme was first launched by Microsoft for Startups in India, where only 56 startups were selected to the Emerge X program from six states, which now claims to have over 15,000 startups.
