Looking for investors? Below are the top investors in Malaysia

Do you have a business idea that you want to commercialize but has no funds to do so? Have you been working on a business plan which you are confident will work but has no idea who to ask? There are actually a lot of parties across Malaysia who has the funds or monetary means to help your business grow. All you need to do is to look in the right places.

Entrepreneurship Organisations and Groups

One of the platforms you can explore is to communicate with groups or organisations that are involved in entrepreneurship. These groups are usually quite closely knitted and they are formed by people who are passionate about helping businesses start. Among them are:

• Entrepreneurs’ Organisation – EO Malaysia is the local chapter of this international network of entrepreneurs. Besides offering assistance and funding options, EO Malaysia helps to nurture and educate business ideation and other processes.
• GMB Young Entrepreneur Organization Malaysia – GMB Malaysia is a growing organisation which is involved not in the entire process chain that facilitates growing of business ideas, funding and other stages

Angel Investors first step

One of the first places you should look into is through angel investors. They are not the same as venture capitalists. Angel investors usually help a business to start at the beginning while VCs are more into investing into the business and then watching it grow to mature. Among the angel investors you can find in Malaysia include:

• Cradle Fund – Known for its CIP or Cradle Investment Programme, it has helped many entrepreneurs and business startups, particularly in the technological field to commercialize their businesses.
• Malaysian Business Angel Network – This is the official agency that brings together angel investors to help them grow collectively.

Venture Capitalists and Crowdfunding

Besides the 2 main investors mentioned, you can opt to look for other parties who can propel your business to greater heights. This includes:

• Venture Capitalists – This includes the government-related MavCap which basically is the largest VC company in Malaysia. Others include Venture Capital Asia-Pacific, 1337 Ventures, CAV Private Equity and many others.
• Crowdfunding – This is perhaps one of the more popular funding options around today. Malaysian crowdfunding includes the likes of pitchIN, MyStartr, Kickstarter, IndieGogo, GoFundMe and many more which are starting to enter the market to get business ideas off the ground.

There are actually a lot of options available in the respective areas if you are looking for a reliable organisation. What you need to do is to work on a good business plan and present them. Some of these organisations actually help you to design a compelling business plan that works too.

Types of investments in Malaysia

Bonds investment

Bonds are a type of investments under the fixed-income securities category. It is basically a type of investment that uses the debt concept. What it means is that you are actually lending money to the organisation when you purchase a bond from them. These parties can be a large company and would commonly be a government. You then earn from the interest agreed when the time comes. It is seen as one of the most stable investments which are almost risk-free as compared to others.

Stocks investment

Stocks are one of the most popular forms of investments. Usually managed by the country’s bourse (Bursa Malaysia in Malaysia), you naturally become a part-owner of the company when you buy its shares. Whether it is one share or a million shares, you are entitled to vote during the shareholder’s meeting. It is one of the most volatile markets and can be quite risky although you are entitled to any profits the company enjoys

Options, other form of investment

Options is a form of security which is quite different from other forms of investments. When you buy an option, you are entitled to decide what you want to do although you are not entirely obligated to do so. Options have expiry dates which means that they become worthless if nothing is done then. Options usually derive their value from something else, in most cases a type of asset. When you invest in options, you are basically dealing with that.

Unit Trust or Mutual Funds

Mutual fund is often referred to as unit trusts. It is actually a pool of investment tools. When you buy from a mutual fund, what happens is that the agency pools together a collection of funds and invest in low-risk and high-return securities. In most cases, there will be a strategy in place which will be communicated to you when you buy the specific mutual fund.

Futures Investment or commodity

Investing in futures is more short-termed. It is all about predicting the movements and trends of the securities. When you invest in futures, you try to predict the market prices respectively whether they are supposed to go up or come down. You basically agree to honour your deal in buying a certain commodity at a later date, thereby deriving the name futures. In many cases, it could be investing into the price of cotton, soya or other commodities in their respective markets.

Insurance packages you can trust on

As the name implies, investing in insurance is to guarantee a certain type of return for your money. There are many types of insurance packages ranging from life insurance, fire insurance and endowment plans where it is a form of forced savings. Because of this nature, returns from insurance are a lot lower as compared to other investment methods. Besides that, the term needed for the returns can be quite long as well.

Many forms of Savings

Savings accounts would be a stable option if you are not intending to earn quick and high profits. This is the most conventional way of investing where you put money in the bank and wait for annual (or periodical) interests. Apart from the usual savings accounts, you can opt to enter into a longer-term contract with the bank via fixed-deposits where a certain interest rate is agreed, signed and honoured. This means that you keep the amount in the bank untouched for the agreed term.

Forex and foreign investors flock in

Meanwhile, as currency and trades increase, we will see recovering signs and investors starting to flock in to the country with billions of investment funds. As such, we are looking urgently for new blood to take up the baton to actively lead the country. Forex trading is growing healthily.