Malaysia’s Budget 2027 hands startups US$110.4M but the bigger cheques go elsewhere

What happened

That is how much the National Fund of Funds Jelawang Capital and Dana Perintis, the startup vehicle of the Retirement Fund (KWAP), will invest in developing startups, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in his Budget 2027 speech to parliament on Friday. Malaysia has put a number on its startup ambitions: MYR450 million (US$110.4 million).

“Startups need support at every stage, from ideas to seed capital and scaling up,” said Anwar, who is also Finance Minister. Also Read: Malaysia’s digital economy’s second wave looks nothing like the first It is a welcome commitment.

It is also, by some distance, not the biggest cheque in the speech. Read the budget end to end and a clear pecking order emerges: mid-tier companies and semiconductors first, research and AI skills next, and early-stage startups a little further down the list.