Three decades of expensive mediocrity
Awards, dinners and one big circlejerk.
Sunday (late) night calls for a filler, taking a dig at my favourite group of yuppies: Malaysian venture capitalists.
I’ll also cover some shifts in the space as we’re nearing the end of 2025, because it has to be a decent read.
The entire week has been personally productive, so I’ll spare you the ICYMIs.
Just an update on yesterday’s post: I’ve fixed the currency denominator. The deal is worth a couple of billions in US dollars, not ringgit.
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This week, Malaysian venture capital and private equity players gathered for a two-day conference, while also marking 30 years of their industry association, MVCA.
The event ran on Thursday and Friday at TRX in Kuala Lumpur, and featured the usual lineup of keynotes, an awards ceremony, a gala dinner and, of course, the after-parties.
MVCA, founded in 1995, has now hit the three-decade mark, and the government’s flagship VC arm, Mavcap (Malaysia Venture Capital Management), has been around since 2001.
That’s roughly three investment cycles, assuming the typical 10-year lifespan of a VC fund.
Billions in taxpayer and government-linked funds have flowed through the VC and PE space over those 30 years.
But, what do we have to show for it?