First Brainjam piece of the 2026, and I’m still stuck in Khazanah Nasional zone, though I’ll be moving on to something else next.
But I’m pushing this out because it’s timely.
Brainjam is a space for founding members where I publish loose notes, unstructured datasets and anything that won’t pass muster as a standalone newsletter.
Past topics include VC investments across three Khazanah MDs and stories I didn’t file even though I had access to confidential documents (oh, yeah).
Upgrading to founding member tier is easy. On the fence? No worries, Brainjam is a mainstay.
When Singapore’s Temasek announced its retreat from early-stage venture capital last year, it left a regional funding vacuum.
This leaves Khazanah, through its VC arm Jelawang Capital, positioned to fill that gap.
The question is whether Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund possesses the structure and mindset required for the role.
February’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) proceedings featured testimony from Managing Director Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir and Chief Investment Officer Hisham Hamdan.
The sessions weren’t merely a forensic examination of the FashionValet failure. I’ve covered that elsewhere.
Instead, they exposed fundamental contradictions in how a national institution approaches high-risk, early-stage investing: defensive posturing, survivorship bias, and governance gaps that seem to point to lessons unlearnt.
As Khazanah seeks to become Southeast Asia’s alternative VC anchor, these contradictions matter.
Because you can’t build an ecosystem without institutional discipline (and a lot of money).