Open For Business

How do you stand out in a crowded marketplace, whether you’re a business or an individual? Co-founders of PopCon, Yandaro Al Amien and Nina Sharil Khan “pop confusions” and tell us how to make more impact in your marketplace.  Image Credit: PopConfest Official Facebook Page See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

L Dairy is a dairy product company that specialises in producing dairy products, mostly cheese. They produce not just any cheese, but cheese made of local buffalo milk. We speak to the co-founders of L Dairy, Matthew O’Shea and Biren Mohan, to understand more about the modern operations and the future of the dairy industry.  Image Credit: L Dairy Official Facebook Page See omnystudio.com/list...

What does it take to sell shoes to millions of people in a market that is already saturated with footwear brands? Since its humble beginnings in Wangsa Maju over 2 decades ago, XES Shoes now has over 120 stores all across Malaysia. Founder and Managing Director, Simpson Wong Kean Hin truly believes that to produce high-quality footwear, one needs to understand the skill, dedication, and attention...

One of the many cheese platter companies in Malaysia, Cheese Platter KL, launched in December 2020 with only RM1000 as capital and now have been acknowledged as one of the best cheese platters in the biz. Co-founder Jessy Chahal goes into more detail about how they found such quick success, what makes them stand out from the crowd, and their plans for the future. Image Credit: Cheese Platter KL Of...

American born Malaysian dubbed a controversial designer Anuar Faizal, discusses his foray into fashion from accounting - and his role as National Director of Miss Charm Malaysia. Image Credit: Anuar Faizal Official Facebook Page See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time and Money. A Warehouse Management System (WMS) can literally save you this, plus increase employee productivity and optimise workflow. So why are business owners still apprehensive about investing in a WMS? And why is a two-decade old IT solutions company like Intelli-Mark earmarking the WMS segment for major future growth? We get the details from Intelli-Mark themselves. Image Credit: Intell...

Nuren Group is a content, community, and commerce platform comprising several websites that follow women from getting married to entering motherhood. Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Petrina Goh founded Nuren with her husband in 2013, after working for five years with CIMB’s proprietary investment arm. We explore more as we speak to Petrina, one of Southeast Asia’s Top 50 Rising Women In Tec...

Hawkr is a micro kitchen and home-food-focused delivery platform and business solution. Founded in 2020, Hawkr specialises in empowering budding home cooks to successfully set up and grow their own micro kitchen business through hands-on business and marketing solutions on top of their food delivery services. Hawkr currently features more than 100 home-cooked meal brands and is now available in th...

Waste has become a massive issue during the pandemic, with the usage of disposable materials skyrocketing. Vince Koay and MC Leong, co-founders of AiruFlo, are determined to combat the issue by creating eco-friendly, durable, reusable masks that work well, look good, and help reduce disposable mask waste. Image Credit: AiruFlo Official Facebook Page See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

The physical activity market is booming with an estimated value of USD12.9 billion across the region, particularly in a post-pandemic era with fitness activities getting back into full swing. Looking to tap into this more holistic market, HeyJom has just announced an equity crowdfunding initiative that aims to garner RM2 million in funding. How do they plan to do this and what are the future plans...

One-stop collaborative logistics provider Pickupp Malaysia is forging ahead in its efforts to transform the logistics landscape in Malaysia through technology. Since its foray into Malaysia a few years ago, it has succeeded in blending machine learning and automation with dynamic scalability to boost supply chain efficiencies and optimise last-mile deliveries. We speak with Country Manager Navin K...

Founded in 2018 by Shah Farid Rashid, Fasih Mandarin is a Certified Language Center established with one goal in mind: to help people with no prior foundation in Mandarin master the language through the easiest and most effective methods. Shah Rashid joins us to elaborate on his brainchild, and their goals for furthering Mandarin proficiency in Malaysia. Image Credit: Fasih Mandarin Official Faceb...

For festive seasons, it can be nice for the entire family to look like a cohesive unit and for everyone to have their best feet forward; but how do you accommodate comfortable, stylish, and bright clothes that suit the whole family without visiting multiple outlets? Jay Liow & Ameera Loh, two of the three co-founders of Umbi Kids, a family-friendly clothing company, talk about their passion fo...

1 out of 12 Malaysians is an older person, and the numbers of older persons are likely to increase to 11% of the Malaysian population, at 3.3 million people by 2020.  Between 2020 and 2046, Malaysia’s 65+ population will double from 7% to 14%. Homage is a tech company that provides on-demand holistic non-medical and medical services to seniors and adults, allowing them to age and recover at h...

Launched in 2018, SKALE offers customizable solutions for large corporations and a self-service platform for SMEs, designed to drive shoppers to physical stores, triggering sales conversion and to collect relevant offline data such as shopper footfall, in-store sales, and first-party data. Founder Yuet Whey Siah elaborates on designing a go-to marketing solution for retailers, and her focus on ena...

Gaia Plas was established in 2006 as a plastic manufacturer and the one-stop packaging solution provider. Trained as a secretary and with her first job as a loan officer with a bank, Norsharina Mohd Shahar of Gaia Plas is now an Executive Chairman and Founder of the company. She is also a nominee for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award for the Woman Entrepreneur category. We speak to her to disc...

Just over a year ago we spoke with Izzati and Faizah as they set out on their business venture, Refill Houz. Fast forward a year, and they've pivoted into another product that is inline with their passion of zero waste. The girls landed on a product that they hope will make a safer and more sustainable period care product that is accessible to women everywhere, the Suci Cup. See omnystudio.com/lis...

It’s hard to dismiss the fact that plant-based diets are on the increase worldwide. Next Gen is a Singapore based company behind the TiNDLE product. TiNDLE is Chicken made from plants and can, apparently, ‘taste exactly like, if not better than chicken from birds’; after their fairly successful launch in Malaysia, COO Alex Ward tells us about their bold plans for revolutionising meat-free options...

Malaysians know full well what it’s like to be proud of our food, but we’re not the only country in the Southeast Asian region to carry that pride. Our cohorts in the Philippines, for example, have taken the world by storm with their signature fast food chain, Jollibee. But Jollibee has entered the Malaysian market - and left it - once before. Why has the chain returned - and why now? Dennis Flore...

Hasilwan was established in 1989 to provide integration specialisation solutions alongside their partners. Their strategic partnerships are evident through their track-record as system integrators of power infrastructure, engineering solution providers, and suppliers of products & services. Chief Executive Officer & Director at Hasilwan, Yong Sien Wae, discusses their strategies for the fu...

From thermometers and latex gloves to dental instruments and medical consumables, Lumiere32 is on a mission to supply world-class dental and medical products using best-of-breed technological infrastructure. The plan is to bridge the distribution gap between dealers and clinicians via an online B2B platform to become a single touchpoint to connect manufacturers, distributors, medical & dental...

Since taking over the reins in 2015, Ooi Lay Pheng has transformed Berjayapak from a traditional family business supplying wood pallets into an integrated industrial packaging solutions company, serving multinational corporations in Malaysia and overseas. The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 Nominee shares her journey in transforming the business to meet modern demands. See omnystudio.com/listener...

Rumah-i provide integrated property management expertise across all areas of real estate and at every stage of the property rental cycle. With a simple vision – to be the best forward-thinking provider of property management services in the market, giving clients and end-users the highest level of service.  With an interesting approach to how they deal with contracts, Rumah-i are hoping to di...

Sanren Journey is an artisanal laundry brand hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Founded in 2020, the brand is dedicated to elevating and improving everyday life through crafted laundry products. Spearheaded by two founders, the brand is constantly working to expand its product range with more products that can enhance day-to-day tasks. We speak to Herne Gan, co-founder of Sanren Journey about th...

ATX (M) SDN BHD is a MSC status company specialising in the IT, Telecommunication and Services industry in Malaysia. Recognised as a top 50 rising startup in South East Asia, ATX provides e-wallet providers, traditional retail stores and kiosks with digital payments through their extensive payments network that includes more than 31,000 touch points. CEO Sashie Kumar Kovindasamy talks to us about...