Two days.
Every conversation counts.

Every ecosystem reaches a turning point—the moment early support stops being encouragement and starts being infrastructure. This opening traces how years of grant disbursement, founder development and ecosystem-building have matured into something measurable: companies competing regionally, capital moving with discipline, and a pipeline deep enough to matter nationally. Expect the numbers behind the narrative, the decisions that produced them, and a candid read on what the next phase of scaling genuinely demands.

The day begins here. Be in the room for it.

This opening session sets the national context for Malaysia’s ambition to become a leading global startup ecosystem. It will spotlight the strategic role of startups, innovation and collaboration in strengthening Malaysia’s economic future, while reflecting the Government’s commitment to creating an environment where homegrown companies can scale, attract global opportunities and contribute to the next generation of growth.

Opening seats fill first. Register while they last.

Title Partner Keynote

What does it really take to build a business that can scale across markets—and stay relevant as the world changes? Drawing on his experience scaling Klook across Asia and beyond, our keynote speaker will share lessons on spotting opportunities, adapting to shifting customer needs, building ecosystems and navigating uncertainty. A candid look at the choices, challenges and mindset behind building for scale.

Sit in on this one before you send your next deck.

This session explores how the tech industry can address talent gaps and create more inclusive pathways for women. Panellists will challenge industry norms, rethink expectations around women’s ambitions and success, and discuss how inclusive cultures, workplace flexibility and diverse leadership pathways can help build a stronger tech ecosystem for everyone.

Yeng Tan grew up in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. Today he runs Lekondo, a New York-based AI fashion platform that turns everyday outfit posts into digital wardrobes and shows what people actually wear, not just what they buy.

Within months of launching in January 2026, Lekondo reached over 100,000 users in more than 50 countries with little marketing spend. The company joined Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Speedrun programme and raised about US$3 million from Verdict Capital, a16z and DG Daiwa Ventures.

In this fireside chat, Yeng talks about how a local founder broke into the US startup scene, won over Silicon Valley investors and built a product with global reach. He shares the real decisions, setbacks and lessons that Malaysian founders can apply to their own journey.

Taking a business across borders requires more than a strong product—it demands operational readiness, reliable supply chains and the ability to maintain quality as demand grows. This session explores how businesses can scale across regional markets while adapting to local consumer preferences, strengthening distribution networks and maintaining consistent product standards. Panellists will share practical insights on navigating expansion challenges, building strategic partnerships and turning market opportunities into sustainable growth.

No startup scales alone. The right partners can open doors to capital, talent, technology, and new markets at critical points in a company’s growth journey. This panel brings together ecosystem and investment leaders to explore how startups can leverage these networks strategically—from accelerating growth at home to accessing international markets, resources and opportunities that can take their businesses further.

Come with the market you want. Leave with a six-month plan.

Every state has problems that are uniquely its own. Selangor has dense urban centres, industrial corridors and thousands of SMEs. Pahang has plantations and flood-prone communities, and Sarawak has an interior that is hard to reach and fast-growing industrial towns. This session asks how each state can turn its own challenges into startups that sell across ASEAN, instead of every ecosystem chasing the same app ideas.

Building outside the Klang Valley? This is your session.

Every mobility app optimises for the same few postcodes. Wahdah went the other way — building a fleet in the Sabah towns the platforms treat as edge cases. No app downloads, no ad budget, just presence where "book a Grab" isn't an answer. How a rental business became regional infrastructure

Underserved markets, fully decoded. Get your pass before it sells out.

Deep Tech innovations are transforming industries, but founders face unique hurdles from long R&D cycles to complex market adoption. This panel brings together industry leaders, investors, and technical founders to explore how deep tech startups can scale, overcome structural challenges, and thrive in today’s business environment.

Money is the conversation founders and the public are trained to avoid: pricing, personal finance, runway, valuation and what things genuinely cost. This closing rapid-fire session removes the politeness from it. Quick questions, direct answers, and panellists who will not always agree, covering financial literacy, capital discipline and the numbers most people would rather not say out loud in a room this size.

The rules moved. Understand them here first, then raise.

Why do some startup pitches lead to significant corporate partnerships while others disappear after the first meeting? This panel goes behind the scenes of corporate decision-making to uncover what truly drives a “yes”—from proving commercial value and navigating internal stakeholders to securing budget and market access. Hear directly from venture builders and corporate innovation leaders on what startups get wrong, where deals break down, and what it takes to move from pitch to partnership.

Corporate innovation succeeds or stalls based on where it starts. Some organisations build innovation from the ground up, empowering teams closest to the problem to experiment and iterate. Others drive it from the top, with leadership setting mandate, budget, and direction from day one. Both paths have produced real wins, and both have produced expensive failures.

This panel brings together C-suite leaders to debate which approach actually works, and why the honest answer may be neither in isolation. Drawing on real experience leading innovation inside large organisations, panellists will discuss where ownership should sit, how to balance speed against governance, and what it takes to move from a promising pilot to a lasting business outcome.

Welcoming remarks by Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke, Group CEO of Cradle, on the evolving early-stage ecosystem, new pathways for market access, stronger support for technology adoption, and Malaysia’s continued push to improve national innovation outcomes.

Launched to catalyse corporate innovation and create greater opportunities for collaboration with startups, the BIG Programme has seen strong interest and encouraging outcomes since its inception. As the programme enters its next chapter, BIG 3.0 will build on this momentum by expanding opportunities for corporates to address innovation needs and translate ideas into impact. The day's sessions will invite corporates and to participate and shape the next phase of Malaysia’s corporate innovation journey.

To Be Confirmed

What does innovation look like when you are operating at scale? Regional industry leaders will share how established organisations are challenging traditional models, adopting emerging technologies and partnering with startups to create new sources of growth. The discussion will explore how mature industries can turn disruption into opportunity while remaining competitive in rapidly evolving markets.

As companies move from innovation to scale, the capital required—and the expectations of funders—evolve. This panel brings together investment and development finance leaders to explore where growth capital is available, how companies can access it, and what investors look for beyond growth potential. From financial discipline and scalability to market opportunity and impact, what does it take to secure capital for the next stage of growth?

The prevailing consensus among corporate leaders and most institutional capital remains bullish on AI - continued capability gains, continued enterprise adoption, continued capex growth. This session deliberately sets that consensus aside and asks the minority question seriously: assume the correction has already begun. Enterprise ROI on AI deployments has not caught up to spending (surveys through 2026 put a majority of large deployments still short of expected returns), CFOs have begun tightening scrutiny on AI budgets, and a dense web of circular financing among chipmakers, cloud providers, and AI labs like Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Microsoft, are among them has drawn comparisons to vendor-financing structures that preceded prior corrections. The panel's task is not to relitigate whether a burst will happen, but to work through what it would actually look like, who absorbs the loss first, and what a disciplined investor or corporate captain should be doing differently today because that scenario is live.

A 32-hour startup sprint designed to turn validated ideas into live, functioning MVPs and investor-ready pitches. Founders will work through rapid execution, market validation, mentorship and pitching, with the goal of moving from idea to launch within two intensive days.