Malaysia-based fund manager Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd today announced the Coach & Grow Programme (CGP), which aims to train existing entrepreneurs to expand their businesses into a larger scale.

Cradle, which is an agency under the Malaysian Ministry of Finance, was allocated RM5 million to carry out this program under the country’s 2011 budget announced last year. The program is carried out with the collaboration of several key players in the country’s tech and innovation space, including Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia (TeAM), and entrepreneur-training consultants Proficeo.

In the program’s structure, Cradle would run the show, with TeAM acting as project manager, tasked with attending progress and CGP-related presentations, as well as providing industry input. Proficeo, meanwhile, is brought in to manage the program and appoint suitable training partners.

“The difficulty for most Malaysian companies comes at the three to five year mark, where they are sustaining, but not growing or expanding abroad,” said Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan, adding that Malaysian success stories in which companies managed to raise venture capital or expand regionally are a small minority.

“With the CGP, we hope to create a pipeline of high-quality companies that can grow and scale their businesses to the next level and are attractive to funding agencies, venture capitalists, and angel investors, as well as to encourage IPO as a funding avenue,” Nazrin said.

Among the key differences between the CGP and the Cradle Investment Programme – a developmental grant that was established in 2003 – is that participants in the CGP would have to implement the strategies suggested during the year-long coaching period.

“Most times after such training programs, the difficulty comes when the companies can’t translate what they’ve learned into practical strategies. In this programme, these strategies would be executed,” Nazrin said.

The CGP also marks a maturing process of kick-starting innovation in the country, where the private sector would play a bigger role compared with previous government-led hand-holding initiatives. “It’s important that the private sector take the lead again in spurring growth in this field. Governments are good in creating incentives, and even supporting market gaps but it can only go so far,” he said.

Three-phase approach

The CGP is divided into three broad phases. In the Phase 1, the programme targets 250 companies or teams from various stages of growth – Pre-Seed, Growth, Global and Pre-IPO – to pitch to a panel comprising of representatives from Cradle, TeAM, MVCA (Malaysian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association) as well as training partners. Applications to be among the 250 are submitted online, and would be judged on the entrepreneurs’ passion, as well as the potential of the technology solution to go regional or global.

After the pitching session, 150 companies would then be selected to go into Phase 2, where each company would receive individualised training over a 12-month period, which is divided into two phases: the first, a three-month formal coaching phase, followed by a nine-month informal coaching phase.

The first three-month stage covers compulsory group and individual coaching sessions, while the informal stage covers the implementation of plans, and face-to-face coaching sessions. During this year-long period, companies would be required to submit monthly progress reports to ensure that they meet the KPIs.

The training partners chosen at this phase would vary according to the company’s stage of growth and industry. Companies in the pre-seed growth would be trained by AllStars; those at the Growth Stage would have Axile Consulting (for Green tech companies), e2B Consulting (for creative content) and Proficeo’s Go4Growth (for other areas); those ready for Global/Regional expansion would fall under the coaching of Proficeo’s GoGlobal programme; and those at the Pre-IPO stage would have Proficeo’s GoIPO.

In Phase 3, the top 30% of Phase 2 companies would be then picked to be at the Funders Showcase event, where their companies would be exposed to venture capitalists, angel investors, and other key industry members.

The CGP is now open for online applications, and registrations close on August 24, 2011. For more information, visit the website at www.cgp.com.my