DNA on BFM: MaGIC’s incoming CEO revealed

• Carousell to face challenges with better funded rivals
• Goal is to be consumer Internet platform for the region

NO surprise that Freda Liu, host for the Tech Talk segment on BFM Radio yesterday (April 7), wanted to talk about the incoming Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) chief executive officer (CEO).
 
On April 4, Digital News Asia (DNA) broke the news that Ashran Ghazi, serial entrepreneur and president of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation (myNEF), would be appointed CEO to replace Cheryl Yeoh, who abruptly left last December.
 
Like many, Liu wondered if Ashran would be up to the pressures of the job, and be able to successfully create impactful programmes for non-tech entrepreneurs. I shared that I was confident he could, but that in the process, he was going to lose a lot of weight!
 
Next we spoke about the heavy US$170-million Series D funding that Singapore-based Garena raised, with Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional Bhd as the lead investor.
 
Garena, which started out as a gaming company in 2009, now has ambitions of becoming a consumer Internet platform powered by content, commerce and payments.
 
But what’s even more interesting about this story is that its group president himself, Nicholas A. Nash, responded to follow-on questions DNA had, and he was very open with his replies. We even know how much GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) his C2C app, Shopee, made in January!
 
We then spoke about a startup that despite having raised US$6.8 million, was under threat from Garena’s Shopee. Carousell is a C2C app that entered Malaysia in January 2014.
 
Our conversation around Carousell revolved around the competition it is facing from Shopee and Mudah, and with the possibility that its own investor, Rakuten, will jump in as well.
 
Having spent too much time talking about those stories I just had time to whiz through iflix, which is poised to develop its own movies; to talk about how, in Indonesia, regulations will come to startups; and to recommend the article by Renuka Sen, the founder of the Coach and Grow Programme (CGP).
 
Have a listen to the power-packed podcast and tell me and Freda what your favourite segment was! To listen, go here or click below:
 

 
Previous Instalments:
 
DNA on BFM: Tune Talk’s Swag-ger, Grab’s bravado

Not quite your usual R&D path
 
Spectrum refarming roils telcos
 
In Malaysia, women are rocking IT
 
Three telcos, a bank and you, the customer
 
 
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