HLB Launchpad: The Right Solutions At The Right Time
Head’s Up speaks to Shailesh Grover, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer of Hong Leong Bank to share more on HLB’s mentorship platform, HLB Launchpad.
Now in its third edition, the HLB Launchpad 2020 is a collaborative partnership that brings together HLB in collaboration with MDEC, Cradle Fund, MaGIC, Malaysian Business Angel Network (MBAN) and pitchIN under a common vision to cultivate a vibrant and competitive startup community that will disrupt, innovate and bring fresh ideas and solutions to the market.
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Can you share more about the HLB LaunchPad and how has the platform evolved since it first started and now in its third edition, what are some of the milestones it has achieved?
The HLB LaunchPad programme is a mentorship programme, where we collaborate with our ecosystem partners, namely The Malaysian Business Angels Network (MBAN), Cradle, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), and pitchIN to cultivate a vibrant and competitive startup community to bring fresh ideas and innovative solutions to the market.
We started the HLB LaunchPad programme back in 2017. The purpose of this programme is to identify high potential startups whom HLB can partner with to go-to-market, build new capabilities or expand into new markets and customer segments.
Another reason why we launched this programme at the time was because we found that Malaysia had a thriving community of startups, but we realised there was a lack of support from the corporate sector to help these SMEs grow.
Hence, we felt that curating a programme such as the HLB LaunchPad would not only bridge this gap, but also provide a win-win solution for both the Bank and the startup community.
Through this programme, we have dedicated over 2,000 hours to coach and mentor these startups with 20% of the alumnus engaging with us commercially today. Additionally, 80% of the alumnus have raised public and private funding (Seed to Series A) and many have expanded their business footprints across the country because of this program.
Tell us more about the partnerships and the role these partners play towards the platform?
In every edition of our programme, we invite our applicants to tackle specific problem statements in the financial industry than span topics like financial literacy, sustainability and ways to uplift experiences for consumer and business customers.
Our partnerships covers both public and private sectors. We first started our engagement with the ecosystem through our involvement with the Malaysia Business Angels Network (MBAN), where they host a monthly pitching event for startups to raise funding from angel investors. HLB has been the primary sponsor of MBAN in the past four years.
In addition to MBAN, we have also engaged public agencies like Cradle, MaGIC and MDEC where we have had many industry engagements together. For example being part of the judging panel for MaGIC’s Global Accelerator Programme (GAP), working together with Cradle to create financial offerings that are relevant to the startup community as well as being a corporate partner and mentor to the participants of MDEC’s first Fintech accelerator program.
This symbiotic relationship is crucial as our partners have a wide network that is very close to the ground (i.e. the startup community) that helps bridge industries like us with the community for programmes like the HLB LaunchPad. This means that the startups communities would have easier access to the industry players like us while vice versa, industry players get exposure to the types of innovation that is happening amongst the startup and fintech community.
The winners and selected shortlisted startups from the HLB LaunchPad programme are invited to pilot their offerings jointly with the Bank. Through this pilot, the startups are able to gain access to subject matter experts within the Bank to help sharpen their market offerings, perform product market fit as well as test their product in the real world.
As an outcome of this program, we have collaborated with many of these startups as part of our SME Digital Business Solutions (https://www.hlb.com.my/en/business-banking/group-sme-banking/digital-business-solutions.html) to offer value added business services to our customers beyond financial services.
What were the factors that went into choosing the three startups, Food Market Hub, Pay: Watch and ERTH (e-Waste Recycling Through Heroes)?
The theme of our HLB LaunchPad 2020 programme was “Reboot: Thriving Together in the New Normal”, thus we were specifically on the lookout for startups who could address the current pandemic challenges and help better the lives of all Malaysians, including our customers, with solutions that are Digital, Adaptable, and Sustainable.
Food Market Hub (FMH) offers a digital platform for F&B businesses to manage and forecast their food resources, which leads to less food shortage and wastage. At HLB, we have over a large base of F&B merchants, ranging from both restaurants and suppliers whom we felt could benefit tremendously from using FMH’s platform to tackle the issue of food security in our country.
As for Paywatch, their goal is to address cash flow issues and minimise the likelihood of borrowing from informal lenders during this challenging economic climate. They have a unique business model where they partner with employers and banks to provide employee instant access to earned salary before pay day.
Last but not least, we have ERTH that offers electronic waste recycling service. Their service resonates with the Bank’s sustainability efforts to conserve our environment and we saw a potential long term partnership with them in helping the Bank to manage our e-waste.
Why do you think it's important for big players like the bank to also get involved in aiding startups addressing food security, gig economy and e-waste management?
As a Bank with over 250 branches in Malaysia, we are close to our consumer and business communities nationwide where we can play a role to ‘give back’ to the society through our sustainability initiatives on top of improving customer experience through innovation around financial services.
We believe that platforms such as the HLB LaunchPad programme remain important to foster win-win partnerships between the startup ecosystem and corporates. It pushes the Bank to continuously strive for innovation in order to stay relevant to the evolving and demanding needs of our customers in this “new” normal.
Can you also elaborate further on the bank’s role in working with these startups and what will the process look like?
The winners of our HLB LaunchPad 2020 programme are given the opportunity to execute a 6-month pilot programme with the Bank. As part of this pilot, various teams within the Bank (from products to risk/compliance and technology) will work closely with these startups to design, plan and run the pilot program. If the outcomes of the pilot programme meet its objectives, we could potentially scale up the partnership with a full scale commercial engagement.
How timely is the theme this year and what were some of the thoughts that went into picking the theme?
At HLB, we recognise the need to stay ahead of our customers’ financial needs and ambitions, hence it is imperative that we provide the right solutions at the right time. We have seen how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the lives of our customers and the community that we serve, and figured we could, and should, take this opportunity to leverage this platform that we have to help them adapt and thrive in this next normal.
We truly believe our collaboration with the startup ecosystem will continue to strengthen our determination to innovate, in order to meet the progressing demands of our SMEs, customers, employees, and our community in this “new” normal.
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