Gobi Partners appoints former Mavcap CEO as managing director for Asean

• Will oversee investments and fundraising for Gobi in the Malaysian market
• Will lead the management of the firm’s early-stage Pakistani fund with Fatima Ventures

GOBI Partners, a regional venture capital firm announced on April 2 that it has appointed Jamaludin Bujang (pic), former chief executive officer of Malaysian Venture Capital Management (Mavcap) as the managing director for its Malaysian operations.

Jamaludin was with local and international investment banks as a sell side analyst for 15 years before joining a subsidiary of a sovereign fund and later Mavcap for 13 years combined, first as a head of Investment in the former and as CEO in the latter.

At Mavcap, he changed the company’s strategic direction to focus on raising funds from the private sector and managing funds with local and international venture capital (VC) partners.

He attracted a number of local corporates to -- for the first time -- invest in VC funds. This has allowed Mavcap to reduce its dependence on funds from the Government and at the same time increase private sector participation and investment in the technology space.

Together with its partners, Mavcap has managed to raise funds from a sovereign fund and several foreign investors.

In total, he helped Mavcap to create, manage, and participate in nine funds with a combined size of up to US$490 million (RM2 billion) since 2014.

All the funds focus on technology companies and some have specific investment mandates including investment in Bumiputra companies, regional tech companies and early and growth stages companies. The funds have invested in 268 companies so far, 89 of which are Malaysian tech companies.

Jamaludin is also active in the local VC industry. He was the chairman of Malaysia Venture Capital Association (MVCA) for the 2012/3 period and has spent a lot of effort in helping the industry grow by engaging with stakeholders including the regulators, government agencies, private sector VCs and accelerators, universities, NGOs, limited partners and corporates.

Jamaludin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Economics) from Wichita State University, Kansas, United States and a master’s degree in Business Law (Executive) from International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur.

Chairman and founding partner of Gobi, Thomas G Tsao welcomed the new appointment, saying, “Jamal was a key part of the reason why Gobi established our office here in Kuala Lumpur. We have known Jamal for a long time, and are honored to have him on board.”

Jamaludin will be leading the management of the firm’s newly announced early-stage Pakistani fund with Fatima Ventures. He will also be overseeing investments and fundraising for Gobi in the Malaysian market.