i3 - January/February 2021 - 12

Tech

By Angela Titone

I N T E R N AT I O N A L FO C US

MALAYSIA

" Highway to a 100 Unicorns " is Microsoft
Malaysia's collaborative effort with Malaysia
Digital Economy Corp. (MDEC) and the
Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity
Centre (MaGIC). The program empowers
local Malaysian startups with a year-long
mentorship with Microsoft experts and
industry leaders. Some of these startups
come from the artificial intelligence (AI) and
medical sectors. One startup, AIME, combines AI and data analytics to help tackle
mosquito-borne disease like Dengue.
Doctor2U started as an app to request a
doctor to make a house call within an hour,
and now the one stop health care app
also provides prescription delivery and
virtual house calls. Naluri's goal is to conquer chronic disease, by connecting
employees and
policyholders with
psychologists
with a platform
for personalized
coaching and
therapy.

MAKE WAY FOR
MALAYSIA
Home to many archipelagos
in the South China
Sea, Malaysia has roughly
870 islands sandwiched
between Indonesia,
Thailand and Vietnam. The
country is an Innovation
Leader on CTA's
International Innovation
Scorecard, earning high
marks for its tax friendly
policies and strong focus on
research and development.
Malaysian startups are now
looking into everything
from financial to health
technologies, as consumers
are becoming digital
natives.

Malaysia Making the
Digital Transformation
Malaysia has the highest percentage
of digital consumers, more than any
other Southeast Asia country, with
83% having purchased at least one
item online in the last year, according
to Digital Consumers of Tomorrow,
Here Today, a joint study by Bain &
Company and Facebook. With a push
from COVID-19 restrictions, 48% of
those Malaysians were first-time digital
shoppers. These Malaysians were also
willing to switch brands in all categories, from groceries to electronics,
while searching across 4.8 million
online sites before making a purchase
decision. Ernst & Young (EY) investor's
guide highlights the country's digital
economy, which grew to almost $64
billion in 2020. As more of these digital natives visit social media sites for
news, Monash University Malaysia
School of Information Technology is
building a platform to verify content,
using a combination of graph algorithms and machine learning.

Clockwise from left: Peter Hermes Furian/Alamy, Jamesteohart/Getty Images, Courtesy of Akru, Courtesy of Microsoft.

Highway to More
Successful Startups

75% of Malaysian Businesses are using FinTech
Malaysia is looking to become the tech hub of Southeast Asia with a focus on FinTech. One example
is Akru, a consumer startup robo-advisor that offers personalized, affordable investment advice with
no minimum outlay required. According to the Mastercard Impact Study 2020, 40% of Malaysians
use e-wallets, leading other countries in Southeast Asia. On the corporate side, some 75% of
Malaysian businesses are using FinTech products, including mobile payments and digital wallets.
FinTech platform usage picked up during COVID-19 this year, and 34% of businesses saw the potential for Fintech solutions to lower the cost of doing business. Another Malaysian FinTech startup
FraudLabs Pro, protects online e-commerce purchases by offering real-time fraud analysis.
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

i3_0121_12_Tech_InternationalFocus.indd 12

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

12/9/20 3:14 PM

https://bit.ly/34jQG1R https://bit.ly/34jQG1R https://bit.ly/2WngiH0 https://bit.ly/2WngiH0 https://bit.ly/3nrgUqL https://www.akrunow.com/

i3 - January/February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - January/February 2021