What ViC has been up to

Wow. It’s been a while since the last post.

Though it may appear to be quiet on the website, nevertheless ViC has been keeping pretty busy all these months:

• Google has come on board as one of our Supporters cum Advisors. Representing Google is Ishi Singh (New Business Development in Southeast Asia), who will act as a tech advisor to ViC and our promoted startups. Ishi has been involved in a variety of areas within Google, including infrastructure, mobile, commerce and incubation. By the way, if you haven’t heard, Google announced today that it is opening a new Malaysian office.
• Microsoft is also now a Supporter cum Advisor. Peter Tam (Director, Local Software Innovations, Microsoft Malaysia) is currently involved with enhancing the local software ecosystem and works closely with independent software vendors (ISVs).
• The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has also joined as one of our Advisors, represented by Vincent Chin (Partner and Managing Director, BCG Kuala Lumpur). In 2007 and 2008, BCG published a thorough review on Malaysia’s financial and investment sector which highlighted that Malaysia has a very poor angel investment ecosystem and that tapping into a group of angel investors was the single biggest challenge for startup companies.
• ViC hosted a Christmas Networking Dinner last month for our angel investors and partners. Photos to come soon.
• ViC participated in the Global Bridge: Malaysia Commercialisation Assistance Programme (CAP) 2010 panel discussion on Funding & Financing Issues for the Biotech Enterprise. It was hosted by Biotech Corp and Larta Institute. 
  
• We’ve been getting a range of interesting submissions from entrepreneurs, ranging from entertainment media to biotechnology.
• We’ve added a few more high-quality angel investors to our Members circle, with both the expertise and finances to invest in IT, creative content, communcations, healthcare, retail services, green technology, biotechnology and consumer businesses/services.
• ViC has initiated discussions with the relevant authorities to improve the tax incentives for angel investors in Malaysia. Though we do have some measure of tax incentives for venture capital, the guidelines and tax incentives for angel investing itself could use a boost to attract more angel investors. More updates as we progress in future.

Stay tuned for more. And Happy New Year!