Digital Hub set to obtain MSC status

Digital Hub Sdn Bhd, which owns a portal for venture capital financing, is expecting to obtain Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status soon, according to its managing director Jacqueline Tai.

"We have been getting very positive response from people we talked to at the incubator centres in Johor and Cyberjaya,'' Tai told Star Business.

She said that the portal InvestmentBank Asia.com had been introduced to associations linked to invention and design, chambers of commerce and small and medium scale industries (SMIs).

Tai is among three professionals with experience in corporate finance, business development and engineering who has team up to work on an open exchange for venture capital financing.

According to Tai, this is Asia's first open-ended financial portal which was launched last month.

The portal provides an avenue for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, both IT and non-IT sectors, to get financing from venture capitalists (VCs) and angels (individual investors).

Digital Hub director Robert A. Young said start-ups and SMEs were literally "pounding the pavement'' for financing.

"They do not know where to go. With an annual subscription of US$100 for entrepreneurs, they can post a brief business plan online,'' he said.

According to Young, the first information they post should comprise a summary of the business, its financial projections, historical information and market plans.

"Interested VCs and angels can then get in touch with them or if they prefer confidentiality, these entrepreneurs can go through us,'' he said.

"They save a lot of time as they do not need to begin the process all over again when a plan is rejected by one VC,'' said Young.

Tai, meanwhile, said corporate institutional investors must have RM10mil minimum and individuals RM500,000.

Digital Hub corporate finance director Calvin Goh said that besides access to funding, the portal also has a databank of Asean banks and financial institutions, brokerages, insurance companies, venture capital firms from the US, Britain and Asia Pacific.

It also has guidelines on the investment climate to help investors make decisions.

Entrepreneurs pay an annual subscription of US$100 while investors pay US$295 to access the information.

"We are not the first to create such a platform but the only one which is open-ended. The information is also consolidated for visitors. We are not afraid to share. We are filling a vacuum for SMEs to get alternative sources of financing,'' Tai said.

She said the open-ended system they were advocating was not new. It is about two years old in the US and has been in Europe for six months now.

"We have 'democratised' the VC process to give entrepreneurs better exposure. They are free to go online directly themselves or they can choose to engage our services,'' Tai said.

According to Goh, besides access to funding and information for SMEs, the exchange also matches buyers and sellers of businesses, mergers and acquisitions and privatisation.

Digital Hub's sources of revenue are from subscription, advertising and consultancy.