Open For Business
The flagship entrepreneurship show on BFM, featuring personal business stories from early stage start-ups to billionaire octogenarians in Malaysia and abroad. Notable guests include Martin Cooper, Julian Assange, Ralph Henry Baer, Tony Buzan, Isaac Tigrett, Robert Kiyosaki, and Nick Vujicic. The show also touches on news, issues, and trends affecting the SME industry and the broader business community.
Episodes
Lekondo: Outfit of the Day, Data of the Future
Most technology knows your taste through what you buy, search for or click on. Lekondo thinks what you actually wear says far more.Founded by Malaysian Yeng Tan, who grew up in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, the New York-based app lets people post their outfit of the day. AI picks out each item and builds a digital closet over time, and users can see how people dress around the world. Since launching in Jan
PROMPT:KL at Urbanscapes: AI for Non-Techies
While the AI ecosystem is filled with developer meetups and technical hackathons, a gap remains for non-technical professionals, creatives, and entrepreneurs who need hands-on familiarity with AI tools. PROMPT:CITY is tackling this space by collaborating with cultural events like Urbanscapes 2026 to reach everyday consumers and hobbyists where they spend their time.Wong Joon Ian, Founder of PROMPT
The Math Behind Renting Designer Bridal Gowns
In 2015, a professional wedding planner preparing for her own marriage hit a brick wall. Despite her industry connections, she collided with the premium bridal market’s quietest rule: top-tier designers cut their gowns for one body type. If a bride falls outside those rigid proportions, the luxury tier shuts its doors. Rejecting the standard industry compromise of cheap lookalikes, East Chin
Jaedals: Life's Too Short for Boring Sandals
Jaedals was created to kill the historical compromise between comfortable “trekky sandals” and style. But the brand's true differentiator lies in its unconventional production engine. Rather than relying wholly on traditional factory assembly lines, the company employs underserved women across Singapore who sew and embellish the sandals directly from their own living rooms. After spending nea
Batik Boutique: PMX Virality at F1, Merdeka 118, & B2B Growth
Batik Boutique is accelerating its retail expansion with the launch of its 1,500-square-foot flagship outlet at Merdeka 118, alongside achieving B Corp recertification with a 92-point score. The social enterprise saw a 75% year-to-date growth in its B2B segment and a 20% rise in B2C retail, further boosted by a viral moment when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wore their joint-designed shi
Seven Friends, One Gym: Building COR3
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.Gyms in Malaysia aren’t known for big profits, and there’s no shortage of them. So why would seven friends who train together open another one?COR3 in Kota Damansara is a “box,” the term functional fitness folks use for their gyms. It’s a semi-outdoor space packed with barbells and weights. Six months after opening, it already has more t
Can A Honey Spoon Find Its Place In The FMCG Market?
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.Virgin Honey makes ready-to-use Acacia honey spoons, with an aim to offer a cleaner and more convenient way to enjoy honey without the mess of a traditional jar. Founded by Veenondhra Subramaniam, the Malaysian FMCG start-up is building a business around a familiar product in a different format.We discuss who buys single-serve honey, how
Inside Malaysia’s First Single-Origin Cocoa Drink Shop
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.Kakao Origin serves non-alcoholic drinks made with Malaysian single-origin chocolate, the first of its kind in the country. It started as a stall in Central Market and now has a flagship at Dayabumi.We talk about who pays RM16 to RM20 for a cup of chocolate, how they source beans from Malaysian farmers, and whether a drink shop can boost
Rail Estate: Building a Global Travel Company Around Trains
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.Frank Marini started in the mailroom of an American tour company as a part-time college job. Thirty years later he runs Railbookers Group, the world's largest independent rail holiday company. It builds trips around trains - the rail, the hotels, the sightseeing and the transfers. It offers more than 5,200 rail journeys, employs almost 4
Can Vircle Change How Children Manage Money?
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.Can children participate in Malaysia’s growing cashless economy without being exposed to the risks of adult financial products? Vircle founder and CEO Gokula Krishnan Subramaniam believes children need a safer way to manage money, but making digital payments accessible also raises questions about regulation, parental oversight and financ
Tupai Is Back: New Apps, New Numbers, Same Maths Problem
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.A year ago, Tupai came on BFM to talk about Malaysia's maths problem. Since then, the numbers have gotten worse. In SPM 2025, 21.7% of candidates did not pass Mathematics, and in the latest PISA, Malaysia's maths score fell to 397 points, with only 35% of 15-year-olds reaching basic proficiency, against 65% across OECD countries. We
How SCORE Built Malaysia's Biggest Race, And Just Won Singapore’s
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.In 2014, the first SCORE Marathon drew 3,674 runners.Two months ago in Putrajaya, the 2026 edition drew 51,077 across two days - and was officially entered into the Malaysia Book of Records as the largest running event in the country's history.That is a fourteen-fold increase in twelve years, achieved by a company that has never raised a
Changing Gears: Running Malaysia's Top Proton Dealer Group
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here.Everyone has visited a car dealership, yet almost nobody understands the underlying economics. The actual margin on selling a vehicle remains thin; dealerships actually make their money through servicing, parts, and financing. Janessa Kuek operates AG Autoworld, a massive Johor-based Proton 4S dealer group and part of her family's larger
Free Coding Bootcamps, and The Business Behind Them
For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here. When Inbaraj Suppiah was last on this show, JomHack was a hackathon company - designing and running 48-hour innovation sprints for corporates and government agencies.It is now, to a considerable extent, a school.For the past year JomHack has run a free 30-day Python bootcamp. Daily classes, no fees, and no coding background required. 38
Hot, Cold, Repeat: Building KL's First Social Recovery Club
The Contrast Club opened in Damansara Heights around three months ago: a communal Finnish stone sauna, pool-sized cold plunges, and a hot magnesium pool. You move between them - hot, cold, hot again - in a shared space rather than a private room.That communal choice is the whole idea. Contrast therapy already existed in Kuala Lumpur, but mostly in small rooms built for one or two people. Their bet
Bagging Profits From F&B Surplus
Every day, Malaysians discard roughly 13,800 tonnes of food. A significant portion of this isn't consumer waste - it is perfectly edible surplus that merchants produce to manage the unpredictability of daily walk-in traffic. Value Food was built to solve this inefficiency. The app allows merchants to package their unsold inventory into "Value Bags," selling them at a fraction of the original price
Building, Selling, and Restarting a Gourmet Import Business
Spanish Cellar KL is a fully bootstrapped, three-million-ringgit gourmet import business supplying the Malaysian market with premium Spanish olive oils, farmhouse cheeses, wines, saffron, and cured meats. The company operates across three distinct revenue streams: B2B distribution to restaurants and hotels, direct-to-consumer retail, and private dining events. Founder Victor Dejesus’ trajecto
Mind & Heart: The Business of Human-AI Synergy
Otti is a corporate training and research institute focused on what it calls "Human-AI Synergy". The Institute teaches professionals to aggressively leverage AI for productivity without sacrificing independent, critical human thought. Co-founded in 2020 by neuroscientist Aster Wei alongside Cambridge-trained psycholinguist Chang Yin Jue and REDtone technopreneur Dato' Wei Chuan Beng, Otti now gene
Inside Malaysia's Largest Women's Wellness Festival
Three women who have been friends for thirty years each built a business in wellness. Raja Jesrina Arshad scaled PurelyB into an eight-figure superfood brand. Diane Chia co-founded Millennia Village, an integrated lifestyle destination for active seniors. Sarah Lian built Supparetreat, a women-focused wellness community.Then they built something together.The Women Wellness Festival began as a gath
A New Leash on Life for Our Furry Friends
Paws Rehab is Malaysia's leading animal rehabilitation centre, operating as a highly profitable, mid-six-figure enterprise. Founded in 2012 by Sydney Chik, a UK-trained physiotherapist who traveled to the US to become a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner, the clinic addresses a gap in the local veterinary market. Offering advanced hydrotherapy, laser therapy, and pulsed electromagne
Revo: Never Hire From Zero
Modern factories operate on extreme precision, meticulously tracking yield histories, supplier metrics, and machine maintenance schedules. Yet, they possess almost zero institutional memory regarding their own hiring history. Revo is an HR technology platform built to fix this operational blind spot. Rather than replacing a company's applicant tracking software, Revo sits underneath existing
Making Dough by Teaching Dough
Chef Ben Chua operates a highly specialised, fully bootstrapped sourdough baking studio out of Tropicana Avenue, Petaling Jaya. Following a deliberate, unconventional eight-year apprenticeship (which spanned a finance degree, a stint as a Grab driver, and an unpaid bakery internship while working as a commis chef at two-Michelin-starred Dewakan) he built a physical education business rooted entire
Hitting the Jackpot With Interactive Campaigns
After spending two decades building apps, websites, and CRM systems for Southeast Asian enterprises, Steve Wan watched his clients pour increasing budgets into traditional digital advertising models for diminishing returns. Realising that interactive campaigns effectively captured consumer attention but were prohibitively expensive to custom-build, he launched RewardinMe. Today, the bootstrapped,
Delivering Growth in a Shrinking Maternity Market
When award-winning architect Katrine Cheong last appeared on the show in December 2024, the conversation centered around the design mechanics of building Little Precious, a premium confinement centre in KL Eco City. Today, she returns to discuss a drastically different reality: the shifting economic ground beneath the maternity business. Since opening in 2020, her single-site, 20,000-square-foot f
Spilling the Beans on Scaling a Wholesale Roastery
Ghostbird Coffee started in 2015 out of operational frustration. After transitioning from the IT industry to help found The Owls Café, Thomas Ooi and Tiong Hsien Qing realised they wanted absolute control over their most critical supply chain element: their coffee. What began as a small Seputeh roastery built to supply their own shops has scaled into a massive nationwide B2B operation. Growing fro
Rise & Fold: Why Ling's Focacceria Closed Its Doors
Ling's Focacceria operated on an incredibly focused business model: one type of dough, transformed into a menu of focaccia loaves and sandwiches featuring Malaysian flavors like otak-otak, and vadai. Built by a former corporate communications and copywriting professional with zero F&B background, the Mutiara Damansara shop survived a brutal first year of poor management and severe debt. By tig
If the Shoe Fits: Faramore's Bet on Wide Feet
Faramore is a bootstrapped, direct-to-consumer footwear brand solving a highly specific market gap: affordable, handmade shoes designed exclusively for women with wide, chubby, or bunion-prone feet. Operating on a strict pre-order model to maintain clean cash flow and eliminate excess inventory, the brand prices its entire catalogue under RM95. By leveraging organic customer acquisition through fo
Can A Pan Mee Restaurant Become An FMCG Brand?
How do you turn a Pan Mee restaurant into a scalable FMCG business? For Meet Mee, the answer came when COVID forced the company to rethink how it could reach customers beyond its restaurants.Co-Founder Chan Foo Chuen shares how the company developed its instant Pan Mee, built a business across e-commerce and retail, and grew annual revenue from under RM1 million in 2020 to more than RM10 million i
Borenos: Why Did The Chicken Cross The South China Sea?
Founded in Kota Kinabalu in 2015, Borenos Fried Chicken is an independent fast-food chain that has steadily grown into a highly successful eight-figure enterprise. Over the past twelve months, the company has aggressively scaled from six to eleven outlets, officially establishing a foothold in the Klang Valley with locations in Puchong, Damansara Uptown, and Bandar Baru Bangi. Along the way,
The Business of Beds That Disappear
As residential floor plans across the Klang Valley continue to shrink, Mocof has built a highly profitable, seven-figure business by addressing the gap in spatial efficiency. Operating under the SPAZE label, the company manufactures premium transformable furniture, such as wall beds that fold into shelving and sofas that convert into beds, engineered with high-end European compressed-air mechanism
Going the Distance: Atlas Collectif's Run at the Global Market
Atlas Collectif is a performance running apparel brand operating out of Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, producing technical kits built on design, performance, and sustainability. Within three years of launching, the brand has scaled to over RM3 million in annual revenue, recording 178 percent year-on-year growth. Operating with a lean core team of just six people, the business has successfully establ
In a Nutshell: Malaysia's Biggest Coconut Story
Linaco is Malaysia's largest coconut ingredient manufacturer, exporting coconut milk, cream, and ready-to-drink coconut water to more than forty countries under brands like Rasaku and Cowa. Operating production facilities across Batu Pahat, Bandar Enstek, and Kalimantan, the company supplies modern retail supermarkets, restaurants, and industrial food manufacturers. Last year, the group successful
46 Years Keeping Malaysia's Trucks Moving
YonMing Group is a fully bootstrapped commercial vehicle aftermarket giant operating across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Hong Kong. The business model spans five distinct revenue streams, including supplying genuine parts for European heavyweights like Volvo, Scania, Mercedes-Benz, and Iveco. Additionally, the company operates dedicated workshops and 24-hour brea
Beyond ECF: pitchIN Bets On LEAP, SMEs, & P2P Finance
A decade after pioneering equity crowdfunding (ECF) in Malaysia, why and how is pitchIN expanding beyond startup fundraising toward a complete private-to-public capital ecosystem? Kashminder Singh, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of pitchIN, joins Open For Business to discuss the platform’s evolution and ambitions as a digital funding hub serving mature, profitable enterprises alongside tech
Still Sparkling: Supergulp Two Years On
Supergulp is a bootstrapped functional beverage brand built on delivering scientifically recognised prebiotic fibres (specifically inulin and acacia gum) in a traditional soda format. Designed to address the high-carbohydrate, low-fibre diets prevalent across Southeast Asia, a single can delivers approximately half of an adult's recommended daily fibre intake. The strategic premise is straightforw
She Delivered Coffee as a GoGet Rider. Now Cafés Buy Her Beans.
Let's Coopi Roasters is a fully bootstrapped micro-roastery that recently expanded into its own commercial shoplot, the Coffee Lounge. Generating between half a million and a million ringgit annually, the business model relies heavily on B2B operations, with 70 percent of revenue driven by wholesale contracts. The company successfully supplies custom espresso blends and single-origin beans to cafe
Due Diligence, Due Rent
RujukRent is a tenant screening platform built to verify a prospective renter's identity, employment, and rental history within three days, entirely with their consent.Currently operating as a fully bootstrapped, solo venture, the platform operates on a pay-per-use model for landlords while remaining free for property agents. Despite its early stage, the business has already secured a strategic me
Taking Nyonya Flavours to Texas
WAY Sauce is a Malaysian brand that makes all-natural Nyonya, ready-to-use cooking sauces and pastes , including rendang, satay, and pulut lemak, with zero preservatives, MSG, or artificial additives. Certified to rigorous BRC, IFS, and Halal standards, the family business operates across both its proprietary brand and white-label OEM manufacturing, exporting to markets like Japan, Taiwan, Singapo
No Fowl Play: Rethinking Asian Fried Chicken
Asian Fried Chicken is an independent food and beverage business operating out of Seremban that offers a cleaner approach to comfort food. The menu features fresh, preservative-free, and MSG-free fried chicken paired with wholesome sides like broccoli quinoa and sweet potato fries. Having successfully survived its first 15 months - a critical milestone given that 60 percent of Malaysian F&B bu
Beyond The Business: How Entrepreneurs Are Building Malaysia
What does it mean for a business to contribute to nation building? For Merdeka, we speak to six Malaysian entrepreneurs working across urban development, STEM education, the creator economy, social enterprise, rural communities and financial inclusion, and explore how their businesses are helping to build a more prosperous business ecosystem in Malaysia.Image Credit: ShutterstockSee omnystudio.com
Malaysia's Lost National Treasures, Rediscovered
PurelyB is a wellness brand selling traditional Malay herbal supplements such as Pegaga and Tiger Milk Mushroom, formulated with Universiti Malaya-derived extracts. The company is actively expanding its physical footprint globally, establishing a US storefront, exhibiting at the Natural Products Expo West, and securing a finalist spot for the American natural products industry's highly watched NEX
The Management Buyout of M+C Saatchi Malaysia
In February 2026, after twenty-three years as part of a London-headquartered global network, M+C Saatchi Malaysia completed a management buyout. The agency is now one hundred percent Malaysian-owned, led, and staffed, officially operating as M+C Saatchi KARSA. While they retain the Saatchi name under a licensing agreement, the agency’s strategic direction, profit and loss, and future are now entir
Breaking the Mould of the Malaysian Craft Business
Friends Craft Cooperative is Malaysia's largest community craft centre, operating a successful pottery and wood studio in Seksyen 13, Petaling Jaya. The fully bootstrapped business executes three distinct models at once: renting affordable studio access to hobbyists, training apprentices from low-income backgrounds through a sponsored programme, and manufacturing commercial furniture and restauran
The Malaysian Launching an LLM Into Orbit
The commercial space industry is moving away from exclusive government monopolies to an era where securing a rideshare slot on a commercial rocket is now accessible to private citizens. Ken Chan is proving exactly how accessible this new frontier is by building KENSAT, a 2U CubeSat, entirely from his home. Outfitted with an NVIDIA Jetson running a compressed language model for in-orbit computing,
The Prescription to Scaling a RM20m Clinic Group
In 2012, three doctors opened a family clinic in Pasir Gudang with a simple but radical proposition: to provide good quality healthcare at prices ordinary working families could afford. Fourteen years later, that single clinic has rebranded as Mediwira and expanded into a formidable network of 22 outlets, comprising thirteen dental clinics, seven medical clinics, and two doctor-led medispas. It ge
Building a Systems Business, One Restaurant at a Time
In 2023, after nine years studying and working in New York, Michael Ang came home to join his family's hospitality business. Today PHASE2 runs full-service restaurants, casual dining, café concepts, a central kitchen, food production, consumer packaged goods, and beverage development under one roof, anchored by fifteen authentic Taiwanese-style outlets across the Klang Valley generating around RM3
Better Business School: Overcoming Founder Burnout Trap
It is one of the most common paradoxes in business: an entrepreneur builds a company from scratch, grows it to multi-million-dollar revenues, and ends up trapped inside the day-to-day machine they created. They work through grueling hours, put out operational fires, and realise that scaling up has also scaled their stress.Chan Boon Yong and Low Huoi Seong, co-founders of The Better Business School
Waste Oil, Real Fuel: Inside FatHopes’ Refinery Bet
If you've ever tossed out a bottle of used cooking oil without a second thought, you've handed away a rapidly appreciating commodity. The aviation industry is racing to decarbonise, and the feedstock for that shift is sitting in home kitchens and restaurant fryers across the region.Vinesh Sinha has spent sixteen years building the infrastructure to capture it. Founded in 2010, FatHopes Energy is n
Bolttech: Building a US$2.1B Insurtech Platform
Unicorn insurtech Bolttech has raised over US$600 million to build its global B2B2C insurance distribution platform, which now processes US$85 billion in quoted annual premiums and operates across 39 markets.Rob Schimek, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Bolttech, joins BFM’s Open For Business to discuss his transition from corporate leadership at AIG to pioneering embedded protection technology.He expl
Taking the Long Steep Approach to Business
Founded twelve years ago, Rhymba Hills has steadily grown into a highly decorated, internationally recognised premium botanical infusion brand. The fully bootstrapped business has secured the prestigious Great Taste Award in the UK and a gourmet award in Paris, while successfully exporting to highly competitive markets including London, Japan, and Dubai. The company has also been appointed as a St
An Honest Conversation About Running a Grub Business With Ahong
Grub by Ahong & Friends is a wildly popular, no-frills steakhouse tucked away in a shophouse behind Happy Mansion in Section 17, Petaling Jaya. Operating with a partially self-service model, and limited seating that strictly demands advance booking, the restaurant serves up premium cuts ranging from New Zealand striploin and Wagyu to Beef Wellington. The core menu is intentionally limited, sup
Squaring Up to Southeast Asia's Data Problem
If you sell products in a physical supermarket, decades of established tracking by companies like Nielsen ensure you know exactly how much product moved, your market share, and what your competitors charged. But in the Southeast Asian e-commerce sector, a market that generated US$157 billion in gross merchandise value last year, that clarity completely vanishes. With product listings constantly ch
Adding Life to Years: The Pharmacist Rebuilding How We Age
Malaysia is ageing faster than almost any other country in Asia, yet the infrastructure to support this demographic shift barely exists. Addressing this massive gap is Seniora, a fully bootstrapped, seven-figure integrated elder care operation. Spanning across centres in Taiping, Penang, and Johor Bahru, the business offers a comprehensive suite of services including elder day care, home nurs
Building a Seven-Figure Hotel Marketing Agency
Hotels face a persistent shortage of marketing talent who truly understand their operations, while generalist agencies often fail to grasp the precise nuances of hospitality. Having spent over two decades collectively inside premium and luxury hotel brands, Lai Yen Yee, Melissa Mohan, and Juliana Yong saw this gap firsthand. In 2018, Yen founded Purple Giant to provide the industry with marketing
(A)Head in the Cloud Space
Cloud Space is a Malaysian cloud and artificial intelligence transformation company that delivers cloud migration, AI deployment, cybersecurity, and managed services. Despite widespread industry hype, its co-founders identified a critical flaw in the market: 80 percent of local businesses remain stuck in the AI pilot phase. Most organisations understand the need for these technologies but consiste
Wahine Capital Is Closing. Rejina Rahim Tells Us Why.
Wahine Capital was built around a persistent problem within the financial ecosystem. Women in Malaysia outlive men and are disproportionately exposed to financial vulnerability during divorce, illness, and widowhood. At the exact moment they most need access to their family's financial information, they very often cannot get it. To solve this, the fintech company built W Vault, a platform that suc
Building the IKEA of Cyber Security for SMEs
According to a 2025 report, ransomware is present in 88 percent of all data breaches affecting small-to-medium enterprises, making them the primary targets rather than just collateral damage. Despite the severe financial and emotional toll these attacks take on small companies and non-profits, the cyber security industry remains largely tailored for massive corporations, creating a severe state of
How a Malaysian Chocolate Brand Won the World
When you eat a croissant from a Malaysian bakery chain or a mousse cake from a hotel buffet, there is a strong chance the chocolate coating was made in Shah Alam. Founded in 2008 by Ng Boon Yeap and Ir. Dr. Ng Yuit Ju, Le Bourne Sdn Bhd is one of Malaysia's leading manufacturers of industrial chocolate. Rather than competing for consumer attention on retail shelves, the company operates as the cru
Appreneurs, AI Hype & SMEs: 1337’s 20-Year Arc
What started in 2005 as a developer training center called iTrain has evolved into 1337 Ventures, one of Malaysia's key players in the startup business and investing ecosystem. Over twenty years, Founder and CEO Bikesh Lakhmichand has backed startups and founders, guiding them through the "Valley of Death."However, with early-stage venture capital tightening across Southeast Asia, 1337 Ventures is
When Doing Good Has to Pay for Itself: MADCash’s Next Chapter
When Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin last appeared on the show in March 2024, MADCash was focused on building an alternative credit score for women marginalised by traditional banking through zero-interest microloans. Since then, the platform has scaled massively, disbursing over RM4 million to more than 1,500 female entrepreneurs across Malaysia, Singapore, and Tajikistan. This tangible impact recently
Inside AOne’s RM20M Valuation
What began as a tool to help kindergartens, tuition centers, and music academies digitise their paperwork has evolved into an operating platform for 3,000 learning centers across Southeast Asia. Today, AOne manages everything from scheduling and attendance tracking to automated tuition billing.Founder and CEO Dr. Darren Gouk returns to BFM’s Open for Business as AOne attempts to raise up to RM6 mi
Sweet Legacy: How Malaysia's Iconic Rose Syrup Brand Stayed on Our Tables for 40 years
If you have ever made a glass of rose syrup at home in Malaysia, there is a strong chance the bottle featured a slanting yellow label with a rose flower on it. That iconic bottle comes from Teluk Intan, Perak, produced by Ameen Products. Founded in 1982 by Hj Amanulla Khan, the company was born out of a stark realisation that there were no Muslim-owned syrup producers in Malaysia. Starting from hi
From UKM Research to RM16M Revenue? Nomatech’s Pitch
What began as decades of plant genetics and biotechnology research at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has evolved into Nomatech, an agricultural spin-off commercialising clinically validated functional rice varieties like Primera Red Rice. Today, the company manages the entire supply chain, from breeding the seeds and working with contract farmers all the way to store shelves. However, m
Can Metronomik Become Malaysia’s Square Enix?
Can a Malaysian indie game studio go head-to-head with the world’s biggest gaming companies? Metronomik founder Wan Hazmer believes Malaysia has the talent but turning that talent into a global business is the real challenge.From building No Straight Roads to creating a studio capable of producing international hits, Hazmer shares the realities of running a game company like the cost of developmen
They Raised the Dead to Build Malaysia's Biggest Animation IP
In 2018, Hendra Wardi won the MDEC IP Creators Challenge with a highly original concept: a comedy about two teenage skeletons working in a zombie grocery store surrounded by classic Southeast Asian ghosts. It took eight years of persistence to bring that idea to life. In March 2026, Kisah Bawah Tanah finally premiered on Astro Prima, making history as Malaysia's first adult animated series. With a
Ditching E-Commerce? Pre-IPO CompAsia’s 85-Store Bet
What began in 2012 as an enterprise PC broker has evolved into one of Southeast Asia’s largest re-commerce operators, processing over half a million pre-owned devices annually across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.Founder and CEO Julius Lim joins BFM’s Open for Business to unpack how CompAsia built a vertically integrated ecosystem that generated RM180 million in revenue and ne
LOL Asia’s 17 Years: From Comedy Promoter to IP Owner
What began with a single stand-up comedy show at Zouk KL’s Velvet Underground in 2009 has expanded into a regional live entertainment force, selling over 500,000 tickets, hosting 350 global talents, and touring across 30 cities.Co-Founder and CEO Rizal Kamal joins BFM’s Open for Business to unpack LOL Asia’s 17-year journey, the brutal economics of the live events trade, and why he’s pushing past
Fixing Phones Is Dead? Secondlifeasia’s Software Pivot
For years, Secondlifeasia was recognized as a hardware-heavy device repair business. But as the company sets out to raise RM5 million at a near-RM38 million valuation, it is undergoing a high-stakes operational shift.Squeezed by a structural hardware margin trap, driven by Apple’s iron grip on parts pricing and surging component costs, the company is facing the decline of repair culture, as consum
Infinium Robotics: F&B Failure to RM96M Exit
Following a RM96 million acquisition by German-listed DDB, Jon Woon, Founder and CEO of Infinium Robotics, unpacks what’s next for the indoor autonomous drone space.We discuss how the company successfully pivoted from an economically unviable restaurant food-delivery experiment into a logistics play, the development of patent-pending indoor navigation software that flies entirely without GPS signa
The Creator Collaboration Advantage
Open your brand's Instagram and honestly ask if you would follow the account if you did not work there. Most corporate social media pages function like boring bulletin boards, treating creators merely as distribution channels with audiences attached. Recognising this flaw after a decade leading Gushcloud Malaysia, Wan Hou Yin left to launch empwr in January 2026 alongside a former colleague and on
Malaysia's Natural Treasures, Waiting to Be Discovered
In 2008, Alann Tan returned from New Zealand with his degree but no business plan, driven home by his father's cancer diagnosis. To survive, he and his brother opened a humble market stall selling pineapple tarts and Chinese New Year kuih. Despite a RM500,000 early loss that nearly wiped them out, that small survival mechanism quietly laid the foundation for what is now a sophisticated, multi-bran
30 Hotels in 3 Years with No Hospitality Background
Traditional hotels often force guests to pay for luxury features they simply do not use. Recognising this gap, Benny Ong and his co-founders launched KiN Hotel Group in 2023. Coming from diverse backgrounds in technology, marketing, and real estate, they viewed their complete lack of hospitality experience as a massive competitive advantage. By treating operations as a blank canvas and avoiding le
Replacing SWIFT With Stablecoins for Cross Border Payments
Traditional cross-border payments are plagued by a severe lack of predictability. Relying on an outdated correspondent banking network and the SWIFT system, global money transfers are often slow and leave customers waiting without any clarity on when their funds will arrive. Raj Kamal, an executive with two decades of experience in the payments industry, realised the core issue was a lack of unive
Same Founder, Different City, Completely Different Business.
In April 2019, Muhammad Hamizan Zaidi opened Affogato, a popular coffee and ice cream dessert cafe in Kuching. Capitalising on a loyal community following, the concept soon expanded into a second lot right next door to become Oregano by Affogato, a pasta-forward restaurant blending Sarawakian ingredients with Italian fusion. Together, these ventures built the foundation of a seven-figure multi-bra
Why Indelible Ventures Bets on B2B, Not Consumer Tech
While the rest of Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem was chasing consumer-driven "unicorn" narratives and burning cash on a race for user growth at all costs, Indelible Ventures took a completely different path. Since its launch, this early-stage venture capital firm has avoided consumer hype to bet heavily on B2B enterprise software.Managing Partner Kevin Brockland joins us to explain why he avoi
Hand-Stamped and Hard-Earned
Most fashion businesses begin with a gap in the market. Kayla Batik Design began with a mother who couldn't find colourful batik clothing for her one-year-old daughter. So she decided to make it herself.What started as designing a single dress for her toddler, has become a fully bootstrapped, profitable modern batik brand stocked in boutiques and department stores across Malaysia and as far as Geo
The Malaysian Who Moved to India to Make Pandan the Next Matcha
Matcha took a decade to go from Japanese tea ceremony to global café staple. Shivaani Suppiah believes pandan, that fragrant green leaf that flavours everything from kaya to nasi lemak across Southeast Asia, is ready for the same journey. Her target market: India. Her base: Pondicherry, a former French colony on the southeastern coast, chosen specifically for its mix of locals, international trave
The Sustainability Metric You Can Actually Taste
When Mathew Howe was last on Open For Business in July 2024, Grobrix had just announced its partnership with Green City Growers in Boston and was projecting 500% quarterly revenue growth from its Farming-as-a-Service subscription model. The question then was whether a banker-turned-urban-farmer with a patented Lego-inspired green wall system could build a serious commercial business across Singapo
Why Networking Is Broken, and What Happens When You Fix the Room
Most professional networking events fail because they focus on collecting business cards rather than building genuine connections. Jude Ashvin realised this after experiencing a highly curated after-work social event in Belgium. Drawing on his background managing the business and logistics for the Malaysian live band Rhythm Nation, he decided to bring this refined approach home to Kuala Lumpur to
Why A ‘Big Health’ Entrepreneur Built A Nasi Lemak Brand
Hagen Chen originally built a fully bootstrapped, seven-figure F&B group starting with Toast Maker, a healthy sandwich and coffee concept for busy professionals. However, his latest venture marks a significant pivot. Stepping away from health-focused cafe fare, Hagen recently launched Jiran-jiran, a brand new community-centric concept dedicated to serving traditional Malaysian nasi lemak.What
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