MoneyTree YES Challenge “BIG PITCH” Event

Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, August 12, 2009 --(PR.com)-- MoneyTree conducted its Young Entrepreneur Startup (YES) Challenge “BIG PITCH” event last Saturday at Bangunan Bakti Siti Hasmah, TTDI. The event, which was sponsored by Taylor’s University College was attended by more than 130 people consisting guests from the media, YES Challenge Partners, YES Challenge Advisory Panel and private investors.

The “BIG PITCH” is the final stage of the YES Challenge, where the Top 5 teams are required to present their ideas to a group of more than 100 private investors and pitch for start-up funds amounting to a maximum of RM 25,000 per team to allow their business ideas to take off. This is the first time a crowd – sourcing initiative of this scale has ever been attempted in Malaysia.

Mr Nazrin Hassan, CEO of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd stated, “Some of the presentations and pitching by these young aspiring entrepreneurs were amazing, and quite a few of them surpassed the quality of those who are pitching for bigger funds in the market. I think MoneyTree has done a great job in setting up this platform to allow Young Aspiring Entrepreneurs to turn their dreams into reality.”

Dr Sivapalan, Special Advisor to Technopreneur Association Malaysia (TeAM) added, “Looking at the quality of their business ideas, the commitment and hard work they have put in, and the Enthusiasm they have displayed, I must say that my faith in the Malaysian youths has been restored once again.”

Investors invest in the teams by buying shares of the new start-ups. The minimum investment in a particular team is RM 250 and the maximum is RM 5,000. Investors were exceedingly enthusiastic about investing in these new, promising start ups, as they now have the opportunity to play the role of Mini – Venture Capitalists. Of the total RM 125,000 solicited by the 5 teams, an excess of RM 97,000 was secured by the YES Challenge teams during the “BIG PITCH” event, with more pledges for investments coming in by this week.

The Top 5 teams that pitched for funds during the “BIG PITCH” event are Entrée, TryThisOut!, Student Media, Fitness In Training and Buttered Toast. These teams will now implement their business ideas in the following 15 weeks. At the end of the 15-week period, if their business venture makes profit, or is poised to make profits in the future, they will be flipped over to the next phase, where they would be pitching for a maximum of RM 75,000 to scale their business ideas up. These teams would also be brought on road shows to participating Universities and Colleges to inspire the next generation of Young Entrepreneurs. The aim is to make them the next Malaysian Entrepreneur Idol to serve as role models to the young Aspiring Entrepreneurs.

For further information regarding the YES Challenge “BIG PITCH” event and how you can play a role in helping these young aspiring Entrepreneurs launch their business ideas into the market, you can contact uV at uvwong@moneytree.my / +6012 293 5116.

About the MoneyTree™ YES Challenge:

The MoneyTree YES Challenge is the First and Only Business challenge in Malaysia that requires participants to not only come up with a business idea, submit their executive summaries to a panel of judges, get judged by a group of judges, but to also Implement those business ideas by soliciting funds from private investors. Ultimately, if the teams’ business ideas are commercially viable and scalable, they would be channeled to Government Funding to help bring their business to the next level.

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