Good news, entrepreneurs!

In the last meeting held with members in the ViC Committee, it has been decided that the RM500 application fee will be removed. For many months, ViC has been waiving the application fee for many entrepreneurs who have approached us with the genuine intention to solicit angel funding to grow their startups.

The original intention for charging the application fee was to weed out and discourage companies (e.g. the “grantrepreneur” types) that are not all that sincere about getting angel funding from simply “trying their luck”. This allows ViC to focus its resources more efficiently on startups who are truly genuine about seeking angel funding. ViC wants to ensure that the startups applying are as serious about seeking angel funds as ViC’s angel investors are about funding them – we thought this a necessary measure for a raw young startup ecosystem like the one we have in Malaysia.

The fee did help with the initial weeding – we notice the ones who expect freebies will often just whine and leave, but the startups who really are genuine will often not mind paying the application fee because they are confident that their startups will get through and thus paying the fee is justified. When ViC notices genuine startups like the latter, ViC waives the application fee for them anyway.

Lately, ViC has been waiving the fee so often that we think the startup ecosystem here has matured enough as to not require an initial filtering measure, so we have decided to remove it altogether to simplify the application process for angel funding. Well done and keep it up, Malaysian entrepreneurs!