Cradle Live! Summit 2026

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Ts. Dr. Nagulendran Kangayatkarasu
Secretary General Ministry Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI)

Mr Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke
Group CEO CRADLE

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and Salam Malaysia MADANI.

1. In a sprint relay, the outgoing runner starts to run before the baton reaches them, one hand stretched back and eyes fixed on the track ahead. For a few metres both runners are at full speed and working on the same task, making sure the effort of the first is carried forward by the next, and any coach will tell you that relays are decided in those few metres of handover.
   
   
2. Corporate innovation runs the same race, from the founder who builds a solution to the corporate that tests it, the business unit that adopts it and the procurement team that buys it, and the good ideas we lose are usually lost in those handovers. The company that could use a solution should already be moving alongside the founder while it is being tested, helping to shape the work and preparing for the decision that follows.
   
   
3. The same thinking sits behind the relay we are building for financing, which I spoke about at KL20 last month, so that a company which proves itself at one stage can find the right capital for the next. Cradle’s design of the BIG Programme brings that approach to corporate innovation, helping a good idea move from the founder who develops it to a company that can put it to work.
   
   
4. When the Ministry of Finance, MOSTI and Cradle launched BIG in March 2025, we asked whether our GLCs could innovate faster if each owned a clear problem, backed it with its own resources and opened its doors to startups. You will see the answer at the BIG 1.0 showcase this afternoon. Against the RM30 million set aside for BIG across Budget 2025 and Budget 2026, the 14 companies that have joined BIG 1.0 and BIG 2.0 have committed close to RM1.50 of their own for every ringgit of matching grant, which is public money taking the first step so that private capital can follow.
   
   
5. Having spent most of my working life inside large companies, I know how easily an idea can stall between a promising pilot and a purchase order, waiting for an owner, a budget and someone senior enough to say yes. This morning’s panel asked whether innovation should come from the top or the bottom, and in my experience, it needs both, with the person who understands the problem able to reach someone who can commit resources and make a decision.
   
   
6. Once a pilot proves itself, the most valuable thing a large company can give a young Malaysian business is its first real contract, which brings revenue, a reference for others that we can trust and the confidence to raise the next round. Budget 2027 will support this through refreshed GLC procurement guidelines, with vendor progress measured through growth, innovation and entry into new markets.
   
   
7. At KL20 I also asked our founders for a little less “okay lah” and a little more confidence, and nothing builds that confidence faster than a demanding Malaysian customer who has tested your solution and decided to buy it.
   
   
8. BIG 2.0 has already widened participation to listed companies and MOF Incorporated entities, and I warmly welcome its companies, whose businesses reach from highways and plantations to telecommunications and clean energy.
   
   
9. The BIG Programme will continue in 2027, providing more opportunities for corporates from every part of our economy, and I invite every corporate leader in this hall to shape it with us and to start moving before the baton arrives, by bringing a real problem from your business, naming an owner who can carry a pilot towards a commercial decision and putting your resources alongside ours.
   
   
10. Our part in Government is to provide certainty and keeping the financing relay running behind you, so that the startups you partner with can find capital for their next stage. Budget 2027 supports with Jelawang Capital and Dana Perintis investing RM450 million in Malaysian startups.
    
    
11. A successful partnership should leave both companies stronger than when they began, with the corporate learning how to work with a new technology and the founder learning what a demanding customer needs.
    
    
12. As we advance Made by Malaysia, more of that knowledge should stay in Malaysian companies and turn into capability they can take to scale, first at home and then across the region, and that is how innovation raises the ceiling of our economy while lifting the floor for the rakyat.

Ladies and gentlemen,

13. As we prepare for another race in 2027, I hope more corporate leaders will see themselves in that outgoing runner, already moving and ready to receive the baton. The BIG Programme have brought companies and innovators onto the track together, and the next chapter gives us an opportunity to take that work further.
    
    
14. The next Malaysian success story may well begin with a problem inside one of your businesses and a founder you are willing to give a chance.
    
    
15. To the companies stewarding corporate innovation within the BIG Programme, thank you for committing your people and resources and for carrying the baton this far, and to Norman, the Cradle team and MOSTI, thank you for building this platform with us.
    
    
16. For everyone here at the CradleLIVE! Summit, do spend some time to explore the innovation ecosystem that is being showcased. I look forward to joining you in recognising the companies helping to carry this journey forward.

Wabillahi Taufik Wal Hidayah, Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Thank you.

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