SME  >  Biz Resources  >  Grants and Financial Aids

Expansion and growth are integral to every company's goals. But financial assistance can sometimes be difficult to come by. Find your way through the financial-aid maze with our help.

 

U-CIP Catalyst by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd 

What is U-CIP Catalyst?

Entrepreneurs come from a variety of backgrounds and fields. If you are a researcher, lecturer or student with a great technology-related idea, Cradle's newly revamped University Cradle Investment Programme Catalyst (U-CIP Catalyst) can help you get started on your journey as an entrepreneur.

U-CIP Catalyst focuses on ideas that come out of the academic or research arena.

As part of Cradle Investment Programme (CIP), a RM100 million fund managed by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, under the auspices of Finance Ministry, U-CIP Catalyst helps researchers and inventors from academic institutions develop their technology-oriented ideas and R&D efforts into real commercial products, ready for the marketplace.

U-CIP Catalyst addresses the special challenges and needs that you will have as a researcher, innovator or student coming from an academic background. As a U-CIP Catalyst recipient, you can receive conditional grants of up to a maximum of three conditional tranches, of up to RM50,000 per tranche, for your technology-related ideas, subject to terms and conditions.

Cradle have expanded the categories of funded areas so that you will be able to get all the help you need to develop your innovative ideas. These categories include:

•          Development of prototype;

•          Proof of concept;

•          Business plans;

•          Purchase of market feasibility research;

•          Intellectual Property (IP) search and registration;

•          Surveys on concrete statistical data; and

•          Product sampling expenses

 

How does U-CIP Catalyst work?

The academic arena is a rich environment for the generation of innovative ideas. However, Cradle does recognise that entrepreneurs from the academic field work in a unique infrastructure and environment.

U-CIP Catalyst was formed to help meet the challenges arising out of this unique environment by working together with researchers and/or inventors based at research institutes, private and public universities, colleges and institutes of higher education as well as the commercialisation units of these institutions in Malaysia.

Cradle aims to help you to transform your innovative technology-oriented research outputs into commercially viable ventures by giving funds for wide areas, as stated above, over a period of 4 to 12 months. They accomplish this together by making U-CIP Catalyst a collaborative effort between the researchers, the institutions, private sector parties and CIP.

CIP will work with the commercialisation units of each institute of higher education to consolidate research and ideas to be submitted to U-CIP Catalyst. CIP also works directly with the institutions in recognition of their role as the sponsor and owner of the IP. Essentially, the institutions remain a stakeholder and beneficiary of the commercialisation process.

CIP Catalyst is a developmental grant, and not a venture capital (VC) fund. This means that your ideas will be evaluated purely on how good and strong they are from both the commercial and technological perspectives. Your ideas will NOT be assessed according the VC risk versus reward profile or criteria, or whether you have a complete management team to commercialise your ventures.

Application must be submitted online at www.cradle.com.my

 

U-CIP Catalyst Eligibility

•          Malaysians aged 18 years old and older and permanently residing in Malaysia.

•          Applicants must either be employed and/or studying at research institutes or institutes of higher education in Malaysia.

•          Minimum of two applicants and maximum of five applicants per application.

 

Smart Vendor Programme

Objective:
The Smartbiz Vendor Programme is aimed at providing facilities to Bumiputera entrepreneurs involved in the Government, MNCs and GLCs vendor program.

Maximum financing rate:
 4% - 6% per annum

Maximum tenure: 10 years

Minimum financing: RM30,000

Maximum financing: RM5 million

Eligibility criteria:
•  Registered under Sdn Bhd company with the Companies Commission of Malaysia
•  Bumiputera holding is more than 51% equity and majority of the management is held by Bumiputeras
•  Project is viable and competitive

Eligible sector:
Manufacturing related industries food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and others.

Application procedure:
Application to be submitted to SME Bank

Contact:
Bank Perusahaan Kecil & Sederhana Malaysia Berhad (SME Bank)
Menara SME Bank
Jalan Sultan Ismail
Peti Surat 12352
50774 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03-2615 2020
Fax : 03-2698 8077
Website : www.smebank.com.my

 

Commercial banks are set to begin lending to civil servants after the Government approved automatic monthly salary deductions for repayments.

According to a StarBiz report, civil servants paid a massive RM590 million in August alone under the current mechanism in which automatic salary deductions are allowed to around 450 credit cooperatives, as well as government-owned financial institutions like Bank Rakyat, Agrobank and Bank Simpanan Nasional.

The current system requires deductions to be processed centrally by the National Cooperative Organisation of Malaysia (Angkasa) before the Accountant-General's Office approves salary payments to individual civil servants.

The entry of commercial banks into the arena may mean lower interest rates (currently at five to six per cent) as commercial banks have lower costs of funds and the automatic-deduction process creates a virtually risk-free environment for the banks.

StarBiz believed that such a development could spell trouble for existing players as lower rates offered by the commercial banks could spark a migration away from the cooperatives.

The local biotechnology sector is set to receive a RM525 million boost from the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund (MLSCF), a venture-capital fund jointly managed by the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) and US merchant bank Burill & Co.

According to StarBiz, MLSCF deals with early-stage investments in agriculture, industrial and healthcare biotechnology, and has so far invested directly in nine biotech companies globally with indirect holdings in a further 18 others.

"The MLSCF was created not only to support the growth of the biotech industry, it was also to develop a stronger pool of local talent," said MTDC Chief Executive Officer Norhalim Yunus in the report.

He said the fund currently had enough from the RM525 million allocation to invest directly in three of four biotech companies and that direct investments would give MTDC and Burill & Co stronger management control.

MTDC was established in 1992 to lead Malaysia's drive towards technological development. It operates grant schemes for the commercialisation of research and for technology acquisitions (for funding guidelines and application forms, click here).

The corporation has so far invested RM500 million in both local and foreign high-technology companies, with many local companies seeing successful listing on Bursa Malaysia.