POMEN: Focusing On What Matters
In early March, 11 companies were chosen to receive an investment of RM250,000 (US$61,844) each to grow their business regionally from Scale Up Malaysia and Quest Ventures.
ScaleUp Malaysia’s Cohort 2 key partner, Quest Ventures is a regional venture capital firm based out of Singapore that counts Temasek as one of their key investors. With more than 50 investments under their belt, Quest Ventures’ investments boast regional powerhouses like Carousell, 99.co and Carro.
Head’s Up will be interviewing all 11 chosen startups to discuss further on the challenges they face as a startup to grow regionally and how the investment will impact their journey moving forward.
Fifth in the list is POMEN, an automotive maintenance platform connecting car drivers with nearby workshops, all from a single click of a button on its app. CEO, Syed Zulhilmi Tuan Sharif speaks to Head’s Up on the journey the startup has undertaken and what is in store in coming months.
And if you missed some of the other features in this series, click here, here and here.
If you own a car, you might already know this household name, POMEN. An app that serves as an automotive maintenance platform connecting car drivers with nearby workshops.
The app got its start in 2019 and offers a 24/7 assistance to Malaysian drivers, connecting them to an ecosystem of registered workshops, wherever they are.
Chief Executive Officer, Syed Zulhilmi Tuan Sharif tells Head’s Up that he along with his team initially thought the journey was going to be easy, given the accumulated experiences that came from running prior businesses.
“Little that we knew, it was more like maze. We never knew what was going to happen even if everything was planned well. Sometimes, you will hit a roadblock and need to go back to where it started.
“But now, we are quite confident that the path that we took was the correct one, looking at the small and big milestones we have achieved along the way. Now, we have a map for the next leg of the journey,” he says.
Today, POMEN is not only targeting consumers but they also have business solutions for companies with fleets as well.
Commenting on the investment granted by ScaleUp Malaysia and Quest Ventures, Zulhilmi says his team was quite confident that they were going to be one of the chosen ones to be on the receiving end of the RM250,000 offer.
“We were confident of our product and its capabilities, the traction that we have at the moment and more importantly the potential it will achieve,” he says.
POMEN plans on using the investment on their operation’s business development, to further improve their platform, services and to roll out more features for their customers.
“We are not the only ones who will benefit from the investment, it will also trickle down to our customers who will benefit through the platform’s offerings.”
In terms of growing regionally, Zulhilmi says POMEN’s biggest market is potentially Indonesia. Their study for the regional expansion plan shows that Indonesia has the highest number of vehicles on the road.
Additionally, it has the highest number of e-commerce capacity in terms of transaction volume therefore it already has a logistic ecosystem. The team is also eyeing Thailand and Vietnam.
However, the chief executive officer does acknowledge the challenges of growing regionally.
“One challenge that everyone might agree with especially in this region (Southeast Asia) is the localisation challenges with the differences between the countries in both culture and language. But we know that it is not impossible as we have seen how Grab became a regional player with strong presence in the SEA market.
“We can learn a lot from their experience,” he tells Head’s Up.
“The investment will also give rise to long-term opportunities for POMEN. We are looking the partnership with ScaleUp and Quest Ventures beyond the financial investment. They have helped us realise our true market potentials and focus on what matters,” he says.
Syed Zulhilmi also highlights that the initiative by ScaleUp and Quest Ventures is what is needed for the ecosystem in Malaysia as the support given ensures the companies involved know how to scale and grow exponentially.
“These sorts of opportunities are quite seldom in our country. We are happy that both ScaleUp and Quest Venture are stepping up to filling the gap and hopefully this will inspire others to follow suit,” he says.
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