Malaysia can be a global SaaS leader, says this VC

Dan Lain-Lain (Malay for “and others”) is a weekly column by TIA journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa that dissects the goings-on in the Malaysia tech scene but with a heavy mix of current affairs, policy and politics. Click here to read past articles.

Today’s column is the second and final installment of my interview with Kevin Brockland, the managing partner of Kuala Lumpur-based VC firm Indelible Ventures.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

In the previous segment, we discussed, among others, his initiatives in putting Malaysian startups on the map as well as why the country is a good place – even better than Singapore – to establish a startup.

Today, we dive into some of the issues he’s faced being a VC in Malaysia as well as deals he’ll be keeping an eye out for.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity:

Where will you be putting your money this year?

I’m quite big on B2B SaaS. I think there’s a huge opportunity for companies in Malaysia because of the knowledge set that comes from so many multinational corporations that have these different enabling factors to be able to service not just the region but the globe.

There’s a number of companies here in Malaysia that are building default global products that can be sold, that are building out these great product-led growth motions.

And there’s a number of those that are up and coming. There’s some that I missed because they are just too big for me. But that’s an area that I’m really excited about because, especially when you start talking about the nearby markets within Southeast Asia, they’re starting to come around. And we’re going to start seeing a similar trend that we’ve seen in other parts of the world where the level of adoption within enterprise is going to start gaining pace and accelerating.

I believe that Malaysia is very well-positioned to be one of the leaders in the enterprise SaaS segment for the region. And because of the low cost base, we can actually leverage the growth that we get here and then turn into creating globally competitive products that can then penetrate other markets across the globe.

For the most part, some of the big players out of the US and Europe may set up a representative office in this part of the world. But they’re not a huge focal point. So we have this opportunity to build up and then leverage that position to move outside.

It’s similar to what I brought up earlier about Malaysia going into other markets. If we wait too long, these big players are gonna end up coming in and entrenching themselves.

But if we can be the ones that entrench and then leverage that position of strength in order to move out, we can actually play those dynamics to our benefit.