Scaling Beyond Borders: The Cradle LIVE! Startup ASEAN Summit 2025
It began, as many transformative journeys do, with a simple idea. Malaysia could no longer remain just a “jaguh kampung” in the startup world. The vision was far more ambitious, to become a regional innovation hub that stands shoulder to shoulder with the world’s leading startup ecosystems.
That dream began to take shape with the Malaysia Startup Ecosystem Roadmap 2021–2030 (SUPER). The plan was ambitious, to push Malaysia into the world’s top 20 startup ecosystems by 2030. At the centre of it all stood Cradle, a focal point agency under MOSTI, tasked with knitting together the loose threads of a growing ecosystem.
Under this roadmap, one of its earliest initiatives was MYStartup, a national platform by the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI), powered by Cradle designed to clear the fog for founders. It offered a single window to funding, mentorship, programmes, and data. For the first time, Malaysia’s startup ecosystem felt like it had a central nervous system.
But building at home was never the endgame.
A Mandate Carved in Policy
In 2025, Malaysia takes on the ASEAN Chairmanship, and with it, the responsibility to deliver more than rhetoric. Malaysia was ready to take on the ASEAN Startup Initiative, under the ASEAN Technology Startup Ignite, one of the Priority Economic Deliverables (PEDs), a list of key economic goals and initiatives ASEAN leaders hold themselves accountable to each year.
Phase One began in 2024 with the Startup ASEAN Portal, a digital bridge linking startups, investors and ecosystem builders across ten nations. Phase Two begins in 2025 with Malaysia at the chair, Startup ASEAN Year, regional accelerators and the Startup ASEAN Summit. It is an agenda designed not only to support founders but also to improve policy support, ecosystem readiness, cross-border programmes and regional partnerships.
The vision is straightforward, if ASEAN’s 700 million people can be seen as one market, the region could compete on a global scale.
The Summit as Turning Point
The defining moment of this journey will come from 3 to 5 November 2025, when Kuala Lumpur hosts the Cradle LIVE! Startup ASEAN Summit. Framed under Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship and recognised as one of the PEDs, it marks the first time the region’s startup community gathers on this scale under one banner.
The scope is ambitious, which is to converge startups from across the region at one point, for one event. More than 3,000 participants are expected, founders, investors, corporates, and policymakers from across ASEAN and beyond. For three days, the city will turn into a meeting ground for those shaping the region’s innovation economy.
For Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke, Cradle’s Group CEO, the summit is about more than numbers. “What makes the Startup ASEAN Summit unique is the way it’s built around the people who power this ecosystem, the founders, builders, and risk-takers shaping our region’s future. We’re not just bringing them together; we are curating connections that would otherwise take months or years to build.”
The programme is designed with that intent in mind, mapped across three stages:
- Day One – IGNITE at Heritage Valley, Kuala Lumpur: a showcase of Malaysia’s own champions, including over 100 Cradle alumni.
- Day Two – CONNECT at JioSpace, Petaling Jaya: a regional marketplace alive with national pavilions, the debut of the Startup ASEAN x Infobip Shift Developer Conference, and the Korea-ASEAN AI Youth Festa.
- Day Three – ELEVATE at Zepp Kuala Lumpur: a finale of keynotes, insights, showcases, and performances — part celebration, part call to action.
Industry backing has already flowed in. Alliance Bank has stepped forward as Title Sponsor, with Group CEO Kellee Kam noting the shared responsibility to build Malaysia’s entrepreneurial landscape. Global partners are also coming on board: Croatia’s first unicorn, Infobip, is bringing its renowned developer conference, while Korea’s NIPA is driving youth-led innovation in artificial intelligence.
From Malaysia to ASEAN, and Beyond
Malaysia’s startup story has reached a threshold. What began as a domestic roadmap, with MYStartup and the SUPER 2021–2030 plan, has now widened into a regional mandate under ASEAN.
The Cradle LIVE! Startup ASEAN Summit 2025 is not the final act, but the opening of a larger stage. For Malaysia, the stakes are plain. This is the moment to prove that its ecosystem can grow from local promise to regional leadership, and, in time, step confidently into the global arena.
Beyond Malaysia, ASEAN must move beyond being a patchwork of isolated startup ecosystems. The vision is for the region to become a unified launchpad for world-class startups, where collaboration, connectivity, and shared innovation drive global competitiveness.
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