MAVCAP & the World’s First Shariah Compliant Venture Capital Firm, Ficus Capital Jointly Launch RM60 Million Fund
November 22nd, 2021
Deal will see the formation of Ficus SEA Fund, a flagship Shariah compliant venture capital fund.
(From left) Abdullah Hidayat, Executive Director; Managing Director, Rina Neoh; Chairman, Nor'Azamin Salleh; Asyrul Ramali, Chief Executive Officer at Ficus Capital.
KUALA LUMPUR, November 22, 2021 – Malaysia’s largest venture capital firm, Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP), and Ficus Capital, the first Shariah-compliant venture capital management company in the world today announced the launch of the Ficus SEA Fund. Its flagship RM$60 million fund,Ficus SEA, is the first Malaysian-based Shariah compliant venture capital fund with a focus on investment in the ASEAN region. The fund will invest in promising early-stage tech start-ups with high growth potential and provide support to start-ups and entrepreneurs in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
At the launch ceremony today, MAVCAP announced a RM25 million investment in the Ficus SEA Fund. The remaining funds will be raised from other principal investors to achieve the RM60 million target fund size.
Established in 2018, Ficus Capital (previously known as Ficus Venture Capital) focuses on long-term investments in promising start-ups across ASEAN. The Ficus SEA Fund will focus on sectors such as Logistic, Fintech, Healthtech, Ecommerce, Edutech, Greentech, Big Data Analysis, and Cloud Services. Ficus Capital was founded by a group of experienced investors and C Suite executives with a deep passion for technology, growth and building long-lasting companies. Their unique blend of experience and talent will assist in the early stages of company development, partnering with entrepreneurs building transformative companies and continuing as committed partners through the journey of building a successful business.
Shahril Anas, Chief Executive Officer, MAVCAP, said, “In line with our mandate to spearhead the development of the nation’s venture capital (VC) sector, this new VC fund will further strengthen Malaysia’s position in the regional funding ecosystem. Beyond increasing availability of funding to enable local and Southeast Asian start-ups to scale up their business, this also provides the opportunity for start-ups to leverage our broad global network together with Ficus Capital, as we strive to cultivate regional and global champions.”
Asyrul Ramali, CEO of Ficus Capital commented, “Malaysia and Southeast Asia are favourable places for deal-hunting; the availability of tech talent, cost advantages relative to other locations, a sizeable domestic market and homegrown expertise in the area of Islamic finance. We welcome MAVCAP’s efforts to orchestrate the digital transformation of the economy and growing the tech ecosystem. Start-ups are crucial to Malaysia and South East Asia because they lead to scale-ups and these will create economic opportunities for the countries in the region.”
Recently, Ficus Capital invested in ZeptoExpress which is an on-demand dispatch platform aiming to provide convenience to customers and dispatch riders. It is an On-Demand Delivery platform that allows customers to make delivery bookings at their convenience. The strategy is to move into a world of instant delivery and disrupting traditional courier services by guaranteeing a maximum delivery time of 3 hours. Abdullah Hidayat, Executive Director of Ficus Capital commented, “Ficus is leveraging on the rise of online shopping by investing in the spine of ecommerce - last mile delivery. ZeptoExpress has successfully been able to fully automate its last mile delivery service This has put ZeptoExpress in the top league with regards to technology amongst the competitive last mile delivery industry. The wide usage of technology in ZeptoExpress will be the key enabler for the company to scale up its operation here in Malaysia and regionally. Ficus’s investment into ZeptoExpress will help achieve its nationwide expansion plans within a year and regional expansion within 3 years.
About MAVCAP
Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP) is Malaysia’s largest venture capital (VC) company in the technology space.
As a Government-backed VC, MAVCAP has been fulfilling its mandate by creating local VC talents, creating more local VC companies and attracting more foreign VCs and funding into Malaysia, thus creating a bigger pool of funds available for competitive local companies.
Notable exits include WebBytes, Aexio Software, Jobstreet.com, Unrealmind, YouthAsia and Aemulus, while many of our entrepreneurs have received accolades such as Forbes Asia 30 under 30, amongst others.
More information on our VC funds, investee companies and Unicorns in our portfolio is available on www.mavcap.com.
About Ficus Capital
Ficus Capital is the First Shariah Compliant Regional Venture Capital Management Company in the world. Its flagship fund, Ficus SEA, is the first Malaysian-based Shariah compliant venture capital fund with a focus on investment in the ASEAN region. Ficus’s focus is on investing in promising early-stage tech start-ups with growth potential. The firm focuses on Southeast Asia and have invested deeply across Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. Our organising principle is the alignment of interests and of values. We build strong relationships with our long-term investors and each other. We are invested in each other’s success as we pursue superior investment returns. Our website address is www.ficus.vc.
End of Corporate Announcement, for more information, please contact
Syairah Baharuddin at syairah@ficus.vc.
