This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 23, 2026 - March 29, 2026

As Malaysia’s early-stage start-up pipeline matures — with seed investment increasingly flowing into the ecosystem — it is catching the eye of regional venture capital (VC) firms. Among them is Singapore-based Openspace Capital, which has already made two investments in the country and is expecting to add more this year.

Openspace is a Southeast Asia-focused investment firm managing about US$800 million (RM3.2 billion) in assets, having invested in more than 50 companies across the region since its founding in 2014.

“We are in active diligence on a number of opportunities in Malaysia right now. Our early-stage fund, which we raised about two years ago, has a target portfolio size of around 20 to 25 companies and we are still fairly early in deployment. We already have two Malaysian companies in the portfolio, and you can expect at least one, maybe even two more investments from us in Malaysia this year,” says Jessica Huang Pouleur, partner at Openspace.

The two investments were in ServAuto and BrioHR. ServAuto, founded in 2024 by former Carsome executives, is an automotive-care platform connecting car owners with verified workshops. The company raised US$4.7 million in an early-stage round in February led by Vynn Capital, one of the fund managers under Jelawang Capital’s Emerging Fund Managers’ Programme. Other investors include Gobi Partners, Openspace and SWC Global.

Meanwhile, BrioHR, a human resources management platform founded in 2018, raised US$6.75 million in a Series A round led by Openspace in April 2025, bringing its total raised to US$8.87 million.

“I understand that with these two investments, it [not only] makes us one of the most active foreign VCs in Malaysia, but also a reflection of our conviction in being able to find and back really high-quality founders and high-growth companies in Malaysia,” says Pouleur.

Both deals were made through Openspace Ventures IV, the firm’s fourth venture fund focusing on Series A and Series B investments. Malaysia is also on the radar for Openspace Growth Fund II — a private equity growth and expansion vehicle seeking to raise US$200 million — which targets later-stage opportunities, she says.

“As more and more capital gets invested in early-stage companies, many of those will grow into growth stages and require growth capital, which is larger checks in order to help them get to initial public offering (IPO) or a strategic merger and acquisition exit,” says Pouleur.

The firm’s broader Southeast Asia portfolio includes GoTo — Indonesia’s largest consumer app formed through the merger of Gojek and Tokopedia — and Love, Bonito, Southeast Asia’s largest vertically integrated omni-channel womenswear brand.

Other companies include CopilotIQ, an artificial intelligence-driven in-home patient care platform, and Thailand-based digital wealth management platform Finnomena.

Openspace currently operates six offices across the region. Its headquarters is in Singapore, with additional offices in Jakarta, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur being the most recent addition in 2024.

Pouleur says the move was prompted by the firm’s observation that Malaysia’s start-up ecosystem was beginning to mature — producing more Series A-ready companies — while several of its existing portfolio companies were already expanding into the country.

“We started to see the opportunity set evolving in Malaysia, with more investments going into early-stage seed investment. The Malaysian government has had a number of programmes to help catalyse that.

“We are predominantly a Series A and beyond investor, so we need that early part of the ecosystem to develop in order for it to become investable for us. We were starting to see more and more companies coming up because there had been that phase of early investment into Malaysian start-ups,” says Pouleur.

As this early-stage pipeline strengthens, a new gap is emerging at the growth stage, she says. A healthy venture ecosystem requires funding across the entire life cycle from seed funding through Series A, B, C and D rounds, all the way to exit.

“We look forward to filling that part of the capital life cycle as well. We would expect to do both early-stage and growth-stage investments in Malaysia this year and in the midterm,” says Pouleur.

Three sectors stand out for Openspace in Malaysia. The first is consumer retail and consumer-facing businesses, which benefit from strong domestic demand. The second is B2B technology and fintech — particularly companies helping modernise small and medium enterprises — where Malaysia’s affordable but high-quality talent base gives start-ups a cost advantage as they scale regionally, says Pouleur.

The third is the semiconductor ecosystem, where Malaysia’s position as a geopolitically neutral country creates opportunities amid the ongoing realignment of global supply chains.

“Malaysia has been building chip design and advanced packaging capabilities over a number of years, and we are starting to see more and more start-ups of that nature. There has been a lot of government support for this sector, so it is one we are particularly interested in, especially at the early stages,” says Pouleur.

Start-ups are no longer concentrated in one country — they are being built across the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, and increasingly expanding beyond their home markets. Openspace can play a role in supporting this expansion because of its regional footprint and experience operating across Asean, says Pouleur.

On top of that, since the firm maintains a strict Southeast Asia focus, it can develop deeper expertise and sharper strategic focus than firms spreading resources across multiple global markets.

“Some of our peers have diversified their geographic coverage such as Southeast Asia plus China, Southeast Asia plus India, Southeast Asia plus Australia. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that we believe Southeast Asia is already really complicated. It’s not a single country — it’s a collection of countries, each with its own unique characteristics. To add another market on top of that adds complexity and, we think, risks losing focus on Southeast Asia itself,” says Pouleur.

“We started out doing Southeast Asia and we’re still only doing Southeast Asia. With six offices across the region — and now Kuala Lumpur — we feel like we are covering around 90% of the market, 90% of the GDP.”

With offices throughout Southeast Asia, the firm can help founders navigate new markets and connect with partners across the region.

While focusing on Series A and beyond, Openspace’s investment platform covers the full life cycle of a company, from early-stage venture investments to growth capital, and even investments in publicly listed equities, adds Pouleur. This allows the firm to evaluate start-ups with an exit-oriented lens from the very beginning, since it understands how companies evolve through later-stage financing rounds.

“All early-stage founders want to make it to exit eventually, and having the capital availability across that entire life cycle, I think, is something that’s still relatively unique in this part of the world,” she says.

On the exit front, the health of regional stock exchanges matters too, says Pouleur. A strong IPO market in one country creates competitive pressure on others to improve and widens the exit pathways available to founders across Southeast Asia.

Beyond capital, Openspace has also been running workshops for founders and ecosystem partners in Malaysia — an effort it plans to expand, alongside a growing local team, as it deepens its presence in the country.

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