- Premium Content It takes our newsroom weeks - if not months - to investigate and produce stories for our premium content. You can’t find them anywhere else.
Emmanuel Samarathisa · · 7 min readSingapore startups seek Malaysia’s greener pastures
Is Singapore losing tech jobs to Malaysia? A recent Reddit thread posing this question went viral two months ago and had Malaysian startup and investor groups abuzz.
One Malaysian tech veteran, Yeoh Chen Chow, even took to LinkedIn to talk about how viable that reality is.
His pitch: the “quality” of Malaysian talent and “high quality of life at much lower cost.”
Photo credit: kudla / Shutterstock
At first glance, the Reddit thread and reactions may seem like exaggerations. Singapore is, after all, far more established than Malaysia in terms of being a regional startup hub.
But there is a wave of upcoming founders and tech talent from the island republic who consider Malaysia a better destination to live and work from. Some of them spoke to Tech in Asia about the possibilities and what attracted them to Malaysia.
As efficient but cheaper
Singaporean Andy Teo, co-founder of AI startup Reluvate Technologies, is one such person who’s bullish on Malaysia.
His “aha moment” came in 2021, when he tried hiring full-time engineers in Singapore. He was up against high salaries from well-established companies, who were throwing money around to lure the cream of the crop.
Teo tried to match the big firms, but his startup found itself paying more but not necessarily getting better talent, the founder tells Tech in Asia.
Then an intern from Monash’s Malaysian campus applied to his company. The applicant soon proved to be “as good as any of our freshers yet 50% cheaper,” Teo says. He then hired six more engineers, including two interns who later converted to full time.
The Malaysian team began as remote workers. Then in 2023, he domiciled a subsidiary of Reluvate in Malaysia. Today, he has a team of eight staff working out of Kuala Lumpur, servicing not only Malaysian businesses but also the Singapore office.
Photo credit: Abdul Razak Latif / Shutterstock
The Reluvate team has not packed up and moved across the causeway, Teo says, because his two other founders and the few remaining engineers are “firmly rooted in Singapore.”
Hurting pockets
Still sexy
Just hype?
Stay ahead in Asia’s tech landscape
This is premium content. Subscribe to read the full story.
Entrepreneurs are looking across the causeway for lower living costs without sacrificing on quality.
We know this is not ideal. ⌛ Sign up in 20 seconds. Cancel anytime.
Our subscriber community includes professionals from these companies:
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
