Cradle Fund

(Cradle) is Malaysia’s early stage start-up influencer, incorporated under the Ministry of Finance Malaysia (MOF) in 2003 with a mandate to fund potential and high-calibre tech start-ups through the Cradle CIP Grant Programme. Cradle is presently administered by Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). Throughout its history, Cradle has helped fund over 1000 Malaysian tech start-ups and holds the highest commercialisation rate amongst government grants in the country. Cradle also expanded its role in establishing equity investment programmes. This equity investment was implemented through the establishment of a venture capital fund, Cradle Seed Ventures in 2015. Additionally, Cradle also offered a co-investment program in the same year and directly (DEQ800) in 2017. Currently, two new grants are available to tech startups namely CIP SPARK and CIP SPRINT. CIP SPARK targets technopreneurs for the development of ideas and MVP as well as other pre-commercialisation activities, while CIP SPRINT is aimed at assisting technopreneurs at an early stage to develop and commercialise their products in the market. Following the announcement of the Malaysian Startup Ecosystem Roadmap (SUPER) in 2021, Cradle has been appointed as the focal point agency for Malaysia’s start-up ecosystem. The objective of this mandate is to ensure the successful running of a holistic ecosystem to enable and encourage growth among startups. Cradle also spearheads MYStartup – an initiative comprised of several structured programmes and a startup information portal. The initiative aims to stimulate the creation and development of early-stage startups in Malaysia, which is aligned with Malaysia’s goals to produce 5000 startups and 5 unicorns by 2025. Cradle’s product offerings are not only restricted to monetary aid, but also include commercialisation support, coaching and various other value-added services to cater for today’s entrepreneurs’ diversified needs.