10 Malaysian Startups to Watch

Offering much wanted and needed help in job seeking for young Malaysians and those still looking for more opportunities, WOBB Malaysia brings both potential employers and eager employees together to aid in the nerve-wrecking process of job seeking and goes even further with its encouraging insights into targeted industries. With many experts and seasoned workers imparting advice and observations of respective fields as well as experience and tips to handle a proper work life, this job portal is gaining momentum among the more internet-savvy younger generations for an easier introduction into the next step of adulthood.

One of the earliest subscription-based food delivery catering services in Malaysia, Foodmatters has been growing thanks to many people getting in with the healthy food lifestyle and the convenience of ready-to-eat meals by delivery. Serving up a wide array of Asian, Western, and fusion foods at affordable prices for lunch daily per month, the company specializes in nutrition; keeping calorie-counts and balanced diet servings ready for the busy office worker. Continuously making meals easier and healthier while remaining scrumptious and different every day, Foodmatters has expanded their services to all over Malaysia and Singapore, and has diversified their already laden menu to include vegetarian and pescatarian preferences.

Filling in the void of Netflix in the Asian regions, iflix has garnered over a five-million-strong subscriber base with over 150 partnerships with content creators and studios. Providing quality entertainment content ranging from top American television shows and movies to locally produced programs and international Asian content such as Korean dramas, this video-on-demand service has successfully widened their audience to people who wish for more than mainly Western content, and caters to many non-English speakers in the Southeast Asian hemisphere.

A fitness startup previously known as KFit, Fave Group now encompasses more than just fitness deals to round up the lifestyle brands in an e-commerce fashion. Offering deals and discounts for gyms, restaurants, spas, and certain services, Fave Group models after its acquisition of Groupon Malaysia and functions in linking online and offline services; all through an app offering codes in conjunction with local businesses for all your lifestyle needs. With partnerships spanning across all kinds of health and well-being-centric industries, Fave continues to win through its helpful bargain-based services.

These logistic specialists have been on their way toward regional expansion, catering to Malaysians all over the country who are in need of help in moving and hauling. Ranging from household to commercial moving, this innovative startup also provides the extra option of sourcing manpower help should the client require it through their dynamic app where patrons can browse for price and service ranges within their needs. Their move expanding from business-to-customer to business-to-business has increased their popularity and helped their company’s consistency, propelling the business to a bright future.

Malaysia’s pride and joy of a royalty-free stock photo library, 123RF has established itself to be among the world’s top five largest free digital media libraries. Their winning point is credited to their efforts in fortifying the creative ecosystem through their aiding in featuring many creative assets that range from images to fonts and graphic bundles. 123RF has appealed to many with their goal of aiding brands in telling stories through images and putting technology and design in the utmost focus, propelling their growth to worldwide levels.

This independent social enterprise deserves all the waves of support it is generating throughout Malaysia for its efforts in pushing for improving education all over the country. Perceiving and combating the worrying gap of inequality of teaching standards, Teach for Malaysia aims to equalize and upgrade the standard of schooling in both urban and rural areas through their recruitment and dispersion of passionate educators and potential future leaders. Their growing cluster of alumni and full timers are steadily bringing the right of good education to more and more children, and the goal of a stable and equal environment for schooling remains a fathomable vision.

Formerly known as MyTeksi, Grab has transcended from its prototype to a major Southeast Asian ride-hailing and logistics service rivaling the likes of worldwide business Uber. What separates this transportation app-based service is their initiative to cooperate and work with existing taxi drivers in the city as well as offering affordable prices for every class of passenger. Attempting to improve public transport reliability through the community for the community and boosting security concerns for women customers remains in the highest regard for this share-ride service, and their openings for part-time drivers and management staff have been a great help to the economy of the participating countries.

While its reputation as a burger joint has kick-started the fad of modern burger joints all over Malaysia, the people behind this urban startup have been actively venturing into upgrading the food service industry. Through trial and error of new methods in advertising, customer ordering, and interaction as well as encouraging the outsourcing industry through joint ventures, the brains behind myBurgerLab has truly pushed the boundaries of a simple startup business. Their unending passion for meeting workflow and operation challenges has helped develop the local talent pool in entrepreneurship and service industry etiquette, and their testimonies of experiences continue to help many who are looking to run their own f&b or social business.

This innovative crowdfunding manager works to serve Malaysian classrooms in need of betterment through the ideas and projects of dedicated teachers with a plan to increase effectiveness of classroom studying and outreach efforts. Aimed at supporting students with the collective impact from the collaborations of generous organizations, government organizations, and the public, 100% Project works to put the charge of education into the hands of people willing to further the cause for higher standards of educating the future generations of Malaysia right in their own classrooms.