The roadshow is targeting to foster 20 new tech companies until the end of the year
by NURUL SUHAIDI / pic source: MDEC FB
MALAYSIA Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) is introducing the IdeaKita roadshow to facilitate new and budding home-grown tech entrepreneurs to scale their business.
The programme is targeting to foster 200 new tech companies until the end of the year.
IdeaKita support the participants in three key areas, namely industry mentorship, intellectual property awareness and minimum viable product (MVP) development.
Additionally, IdeaKita will also provide a series of workshops and training sessions to aid founders throughout their ideation journey.
The first nationwide roadshow, which started on July 29 at Taylor’s University, attracted and recruited many entrepreneurs while showcasing relevant workshops and assistance to aid their journey.
MDEC CEO Mahadhir Aziz said when entrepreneurs embark on their innovation journey, market experts typically only get involved towards the end of the innovation process, leading to a mismatch between industry demand and the tech solution.
“Through our existing programmes such as MDEC Innovation Exchange, Funding Facilitation and GAIN, we have established a strong network of industry experts who can guide entrepreneurs in the ideation and validation of tech solutions to ensure it is relevant to market demand,” he added.
Moving forward, MDEC will be hosting events in the following states — EduCity Hub in Iskandar Puteri, Johor (Aug 14), Sabah International Convention Centre (Aug 19) and TEGAS Digital Village in Sama Jaya High Tech Park Muara Tebas Land District, Kuching (Sept 3).
This is followed by an intensive innovation bootcamp in October for participants to validate their ideas.
MDEC will provide participants with tools, workshops and mentoring sessions to assist them in developing industry-validated MVPs.
Meanwhile, founders that are looking to develop tech solutions are also encouraged to take part especially in the industries such as digital trade, digital agriculture, digital services, digital cities, digital health, digital finance, digital content, digital tourism and Islamic digital economy.
IdeaKita is a joint effort with state-owned agencies such as Digital Penang, EduCity Iskandar Johor, Sabah Creative Economy and Innovation Centre, Sarawak Digital Economy Corp and Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Sarawak (TEGAS) for this initiative.
Upon implementation of IdeaKita, MDEC is aiming to increase the number of start-ups to 5,000 by 2025 as identified as one of the nine focus sectors under Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint.
IdeaKita will conclude in November with a graduation ceremony and participants will be funnelled to other MDEC initiatives such as Malaysia Digital Hub, MDEC Innovation eXchange and Founders Grindstone, among others.
To find out more on IdeaKita, visit https://mdec.my/IdeaKita.