Cradle
Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle), an agency under the Ministry of Finance, Malaysia (MOF) is a not-for-profit organisation that manages the RM100 million Cradle Investment Programme since its inception in 2003. An additional RM50 million was recently added to this allocation under the 10th Malaysian Plan for 2011 and 2012.
Our Objective
Through the Cradle Investment Programme, we aim to:
- Create an ecosystem that supports a strong and innovative business-building environment for technology entrepreneurs.
- Achieve commercialisation efficiency and sustainable entrepreneurship for budding technology entrepreneurs per our credo of Catalysing Sustainable Technopreneurs.
- Represent the Government’s effort at boosting quantity and quality of innovations and technology start-ups.
Our Vision
To be the preferred and leading provider of early stage funding to innovative and aspiring entrepreneurs, and to be recognised and respected for excellence in service, delivery and product offerings.
Our Mission
To encourage, support, stimulate and nurture the development of Malaysian entrepreneurship in ICT, bio-technology and life sciences, material sciences and high growth technology industries, and the generation of ideas for an innovative knowledge-based society and economy.
Our Senior Management
- Dato’ Mohd Sallehuddin Othman
Chairman - Nazrin Hassan
Chief Executive Officer - Kasmawati Sulong
Chief Operations Officer - Ahmad Rizal Abdul Razak
Chief Financial Officer
Cradle Investment Programme
The Cradle Investment Programme (CIP) is Malaysia’s first development and technology commercialisation funding programme that enables budding innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs to transform their raw technology-based ideas into commercially-viable ventures, and helps local start-up companies to attain commercialisation.
CIP was officially established in June 2003 to address the needs and challenges of Malaysian technology entrepreneurs, in particular in obtaining pre-seed and seed funding. Since 1995, numerous issues, including the lack of commercialisation support and pre-seed and seed funding, made technology entrepreneurship a daunting road to take for anyone with a bright idea and who dreams of running their own business. Currently, about 80% of technopreneurs are still in the early stages of trying to develop their technology-related ideas, and are constantly looking for funding and support to help transform their ideas from mere imaginings to actual and commercially viable products and ventures.
In response to such difficulties, Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia (TeAM) banded together to find a solution. In July 2001, they began lobbying efforts under the leadership of Nazrin Hassan, the then Funding and Finance Committee Chairman of TeAM, within the media for the creation of a seed-level Development Funding programme as an alternative to traditional venture capital seed funding. After two years of intensive lobbying, the Development Funding idea was presented to the then Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, at the Budget Dialogue 2004 in May 2003. As a result, the Ministry of Finance allocated RM100 million for the implementation of a pre-seed funding progamme called CIP.
The CIP was officially launched on 18th July 2003 and managed by Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP). The first conditional grant to be offered under the programme is the CIP50 which offered entrepreneurs funding of up to RM50,000 to transform their raw technology-based ideas into commercially viable ventures.
In 2004, recognising the unique infrastructure, environment and challenges that researchers and/or inventors based in research institutes, private and public universities, colleges and institutes of higher education in Malaysia had to deal with, a variation of the CIP50 was introduced – the University-CIP (U-CIP) grant. Similar to the CIP50, the U-CIP grant also offered funding of up to RM50,000. Both grants aim to help entrepreneurs develop their ideas into prototypes or proof-of-concepts and are only awarded to teams of individuals.
Beginning July 17, 2007 however, Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle) took over the management of CIP and it was during this time that the CIP50 and U-CIP was renamed as the CIP Catalyst and U-CIP Catalyst respectively. The funding amount was also increased to a maximum of RM150,000 for both grants.
On October 29, 2009, Cradle launched its seed fund offering a maximum funding of up to RM500,000 which aims to help technology companies attain commercialisation and are only awarded to local start-up companies with innovative technology ideas and good commercialisation potential.
Today, CIP is Malaysia’s only end-to-end funding programme which provides funding from idea conceptualisation to product commercialisation via its pre-seed (CIP Catalyst & U-CIP Catalyst) and seed (CIP 500) grants.
