KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): One hundred startups pitched their business ideas at Maxis's Market Access Day — Malaysia's largest business pitching session — to 70 of the nation's leading corporates, venture capitalists and angel investors, here today.

The event provides a platform for disruptive technology-enabled startups that are looking to penetrate the local market and hoping to network and reach business matching opportunities, to connect with Malaysian corporates.

Five minutes were all they had, to sell their ideas and get a shot at securing an opportunity of a lifetime from among the likes of EY, Golden Gate Ventures and Astro, Maxis said in a statement today.

“We had one key objective in mind for Maxis’ Market Access Day, which was to connect businesses looking to grow, expand and be equipped to ‘always be ahead’. We were thrilled by the response we received, which went to show the shared mindset in accelerating innovation and digital transformation together.

"This is a platform which brought together innovators in technology that is becoming increasingly pervasive in our lives — from Big Data and Analytics and FinTech to PropTech, e-Commerce and the Internet of Things. We are sure today sparked new conversations and future partnerships that will develop into something great,” said Maxis' chief digital and transformation officer, Rob Sewell.

Besides the five-minute business pitching session, the startups also had the opportunity to showcase their products and services to the public at an exhibition that was open to the public during the day-long event. Among the 100 present include Pre-Series A startups, Dropee, Lapasar.com, and RED ANGPOW, Maxis said.

The event was held in partnership with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), Malaysia Business Angel Network (MBAN) and Startupmamak, who also shortlisted start-ups for an exclusive pitch coaching session.

Dropee's head of business development and market, Ali Alsagoff, commended Maxis for the event. “We hope with this initiative, investors will be able to make our dream of powering global B2B trade, one business at a time, come true,” Alsagoff said.

To Lapasar.com’s Athirah Arshad, it was exciting to see many alternatives of digitising or modernising traditional products and services. 

“With this event, we hope start-ups will be able to create more partnerships to open new markets, as well as increase awareness for corporates to move toward digitalisation,” Athirah said.

Shares of Maxis Bhd closed 0.98% or five sen higher at RM5.16 today, giving it a market capitalisation RM40.35 billion. The counter saw 1.06 million shares traded.