THE KL20 summit is a disappointment and does not offer any benefits to local startups, according to a tech startup innovator.

Vidola Titans founder Vishnu Kanth, in a post on LinkedIn, said he did not see any benefits to local startups at the summit.

KL20 had advertised the gathering as aimed at propelling Malaysia into the world’s top 20 startup hubs by 2030, up from the current top 50.

“I came to KL20 today at 7.30am to avoid (the traffic) jam and was there till 5pm. Listened to all the conversations, presentations, panels discussions.

“Literally I can’t see any benefits to the local startups at KL20,” he wrote on his account yesterday – the day the two-day event began.

He said all he heard were talks of “billions and billions of investments”.

“But where are they investing them in?” he asked in the post.

Vishnu, who had worked for a Fortune 500 multinational corporation (MNC) for 23 years in the maintenance and engineering line, started Vidola Titan to help change “our TVETs career path and gig economy by minimizing dependency on foreign laborers”.

He said he had been trying “for years” to get government departments but never got “any clear answers”.

“I came with full excitement that we will get a chance to pitch or share our ideas and products but unfortunately, KL20 is for foreign funders and foreign founders.”

He said he does not plan to return the next day – the second and final day of the summit today.

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli, in his post on the same social media platform, said he told “the best funders and founders in the startup ecosystem” at a private dinner that Malaysia is taking a different approach to startups.

“We are putting wholesale policy changes, we are offering incentives, and we are announcing it to the world,” he wrote.

He described the dinner as “rare” as it was attended by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and four ministers – the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Federal Territories Dr Zaliha Mustafa.

“Even rarer to have the best-in-class startup ecosystem players together with us,” he added.

Rafizi said sessions like KL20 are helpful for the government to gauge what international investors need and how it could fine-tune its processes to make it easier to invest and expand in Malaysia.

Among the illustrious names who Rafizi said took their invaluable time to think about Malaysia and share their views are Dr Qi Bin of China Investment Corporation, which had US$1.4 trillion assets under management (AUM); Khazanah Nasional Bhd and KWAP Malaysia’s senior management; Meng Xiong Kuok of K3 Ventures “who grew 13 unicorns”; Hong Wei Jenny Lee of Granite Asia (US$9 billion AUM), who had grown 17 unicorns and had 9 IPOs in the past five years; and ⁠Carl Pei of Nothing.

“KL20 is just the beginning,” Rafizi wrote.

“While we have launched our action paper and international summit, we will have to continuously engage with the world’s best to always do better. VCs and founders are coming into Malaysia; Malaysian founders are returning home.”

“This time it might be different,” he wrote. – April 23, 2024.