Industry wide collaboration will boost Malaysia's Digital Economy

15.08.2019

In the spirit of the goodwill movement called 'Pay it Forward,' the alumni of successful Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) award recipients gathered together recently to celebrate their successful growth as homegrown tech champions.

Since 1998, MDEC has been supporting local companies by providing support through various programmes and initiatives such as the Global Acceleration Innovation Network (GAIN).

The successes of previous companies that were supported by MDEC have continued to fuel the sustainability and continuity of these MDEC initiatives. Some of the highlighted successful local companies include:

Jobstreet – crosses RM1 bil market cap in 2013 and was subsequently acquired by Seek Australia for RM1.89 billion in 2014
Maestro Planning Solutions (Maestro) who launched QuickSchools for the US market back in 2008 and has setup its headquarters in Silicon Valley. QuickSchools.com is an online school management system that is optimally designed for private K12 schools all over the world. It now proudly powers over 500 schools in over 30 countries, helping thousands of teachers each day.
Vitrox a Penang based company made it to Forbes Asia’s 200 Best Under a Billion list.
The animated movie Upin Ipin Keris Siamiang Tunggal by Les’ Copaque Production surpassed Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2 as the biggest animated movie in Malaysia with collection of RM 25 Mil box office since it released in March 2019.
In 2016, Boboiboy the Movie by Animonsta Sdn Bhd has collected at the box office the value of RM 20 Million including the screening in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Korea. The movie also won the Best Animated Feature Film for the 28th Malaysia Film Festival. Boboiboy the Movie 2 is screening in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam this week.
No Straight Roads by Metronomik have won several game awards such as Excellence In Sound Design Award at BitSummit 7 Spirits, Best Indie Project award at Unreal Open Day in Shanghai and Grand Jury Award in the SEA Game Awards.

Among the alumni that attended the session were Malaysia's renowned content creators.

Surina Shukri, Chief Executive Officer of MDEC said that it would need continued collaborative effort to create more successful Malaysian tech companies. She called upon previous grant recipients to teach the next generation of tech companies and mentor them to become global companies in the future.

Commenting on the power of collaboration and sharing, Surina said: "I hope that all the pioneering Pay It Forward alumni can help to contribute towards developing the nation’s digital economy as we need the private sector to unite together."