Recognition for building and scaling a technology business out of Malaysia.
Entrepreneurship awards are decided on a different basis from technology awards. The panel is generally composed of business leaders, investors and policy figures rather than engineers, and the questions they ask concern durability, market creation and whether the business would survive the departure of its founder.
That is worth knowing when reading the entries below. A jury of this composition is not assessing whether a product is technically elegant. It is assessing whether a company has been built that did not previously exist, in a market that did not previously exist, and whether it has held together.
The entries
Conferred by EY
Conferred through the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme, which runs in more than sixty countries and selects recipients through an independent jury of business leaders, investors and policy figures. The technology category recognises founders who have built a durable business on original technical work rather than on distribution alone.
Conferred by Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards Council
A regional honour assessed on business growth, market creation and the candidate's role in opening a category that did not previously exist in the region. In this instance the category was commercial big data analytics built and sold out of Southeast Asia.
Conferred by Platinum Business Awards, endorsed by the SME Association of Malaysia
Recognises sustained business expansion together with pioneering work in artificial intelligence and big data. The endorsement from the national SME association reflects the programme's focus on enterprises that lift the capability of the wider business community around them.
Conferred by The BrandLaureate
Given for contributions to nation building through technology entrepreneurship. The BrandLaureate assesses brand equity, market standing and the founder's personal contribution to the national economy.
Two of the honours recorded here are explicitly regional or national in scope: the Asia Pacific award and the SME Association endorsed programme. Regional awards are sometimes read as a lesser tier than global ones, which misreads what they measure. A regional programme is assessing a candidate against the conditions of that region, including the capital constraints and market maturity that a founder there actually faced.
The BrandLaureate honour sits differently again, since it is framed around contribution to nation building through technology entrepreneurship. That is a question about external effect rather than internal performance, and a company can score well on growth while contributing very little by that measure.
A global entrepreneurship programme running in more than sixty countries, with recipients selected by an independent jury of business leaders, investors and policy figures.
Business growth, market creation and the candidate's role in opening a category that did not previously exist in the region. In this case the category was commercial big data analytics built in Southeast Asia.
The Platinum Business Awards endorsement from the SME Association of Malaysia reflects a focus on enterprises that raise the capability of the business community around them, not only their own results.