//

By acquiring Qeerad, Mountain Partners will start an incubator to build startups in Malaysia

Mountain Partners, a Swiss company builder, is entering Malaysia through the acquisition of a Kuala Lumpur investment company named Qeerad.

The deal lead to the rise of a new company, Mountain Partners Malaysia, which will be led by the former Managing Director of Qeerad, Hassan Alsagoff. He will take the role as the Founding CEO.

As part of the deal, Qeerad portfolio companies TAPAUtv, Poptani, Give Receipt, LaundryOnTheGo and GrubCycle will be included in the acquisition.

Also Read: This Malaysian startup raised US$240K through equity crowdfunding — within 24 hours

Mountain Partners Malaysia will establish an incubator with a focus on e-commerce, web services, digital payments, fintech and security. It signals a shift for Qeerad away from angel investing towards company building.

“Above all, we want to contribute towards the Mountain Partners vision of making great technologies available to people all around the world,” said Alsagoff in a statement.

The incubator will target entrepreneurs seeking more support, professionals seeking to make a career shift and people without an entrepreneurial background who want to get into the ecosystem.

“Malaysia is a great step for Mountain Partners to cover the next important high-growth market. In Qeerad we have found a highly experienced and successful partner and we are looking forward to combining our strengths to become a strong locally rooted company builder,” said Mountain Partners Investment Director Marco Stutz in an official statement.

Also Read: Surprise, surprise: Malaysia’s pension fund just invested in Uber

This is not Mountain Partners’ first foray into Southeast Asia as it already operates in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Mountain Partners is based in Zurich and has financed over 200 technology companies.

—

The post Swiss company builder enters Malaysia through acquisition of Qeerad appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2dN8ECs