Rina Neoh, Co-Founder and MD, Ficus Venture Fund, a Shariah Compliant Fund
Rina is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Ficus Venture Fund, the first Sharia Compliant Investment Company in Malaysia. She serves on several boards and has been awarded, recognized and felicitated globally. Rina is a community builder and a leadership exponent and she sits on the board of several organizations.
Podcast
Overview
Venture Capital Funding is one of the most preferred and demanded industries in the world. With more and more investors and an increased level of curiosity, every individual is educating themselves about the perks of the industry.
Today The Brand Called You welcomes a very accomplished venture capitalist from Malaysia, Rina Neoh.
About Rina:
Rina is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Ficus Venture Fund, the first Sharia Compliant Investment Company in Malaysia. She serves on several boards and has been awarded, recognized and felicitated globally. Rina is a community builder and a leadership exponent and she sits on the board of several organizations.
About Ficus:
Ficus Venture Fund is one of the leading investment firms in Malaysia. The goal of the company is to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful companies by fundraising. The company helps leaders with networking and strategic guidance.
It is the world’s 1st Shariah Compliant Venture Capital. The Founders believe that there is a vacuum in Islamic finance and they are trying to fill in this space.
Discussion:
In this very interesting episode, Rina shares her journey of exploration in the venture capital space. What was once an idea shared by a group of friends is now the fastest-growing investment company in Malaysia. Rina shares with us the story behind Ficus Venture Fund and highlights the efforts that were put in to set up a successful investment company.
Rina is an active investor in startup businesses and has immense knowledge of the same. She highlights some of the basic mistakes startup entrepreneurs make. Her experience of working with startups has helped her pick the right businesses for investments. Rina also throws light on when a startup should bootstrap and the important aspects of bootstrapping in business.
When asked about the businesses she prefers to invest in, Rina replies
“We will not invest in an idea. We will not invest in companies that have no traction. Traction meaning you need to have a minimum viable product traction. Means you’ve got a revenue model it doesn’t have to be like -wow superb- but at least we know that you have got paying customers even if it is like very little but there is a potential to grow there is a potential to scale.”
Rina is very keen to invest in social ventures and holds a vision to invest and build global communities. Her journey has been extraordinary and she strives to do a lot more!
Profile
Rina currently sits on the board of Matrade, The National Trade Promotion Agency of Malaysia. Rina is also a senator representing Malaysia to the World Business Angel Forum and is on the board of WBAF’s Investment Fund and The Women Leaders board.
Rina Neoh has more than 25 years of experience in both the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds. With a solid foundation in Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Computer Science and a keen business sense acquired through a post-graduate MBA in International Business, Rina has delivered multi-million dollar returns from more than 80 startup companies which she has either ideated, incubated, accelerated, mentored or scaled up in various industries.
Rina is Instrumental in introducing two IPOs in the Australian Stock Exchange and helped execute complex cross-border mergers and acquisitions strategy within the Asia Pacific region.
Rina Co-founded Mercatus Capital Pte Ltd, a homegrown incubator and venture accelerator based in Singapore since 2006. Through its angel networks, it provided seed financing to promising new ventures, with more than 80 startups seeded and incubated in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, India, China, and Hong Kong.
Rina holds strategic management roles, directorships, and equities in RXR Cap, Ficus Venture Capital ( World’s 1st Syariah Compliant VC ) Fintech Lab, Synapse EduTech Ventures, Global Learning Solutions, MindChamps International PreSchools, Smarter Robotics, UnlimitedBrands INC. , Asia Ceo Community, Bountie, IvyCubs, ThriverKids, Love18 and SAGE.
Rina is an advocate of women entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, educational empowerment, poverty eradication, and volunteerism work.
• 2014 – Top 10 Most Inspiring Businesswomen In Singapore (Top 10 of Asia)
• 2016 – Top 10 Women Venture Capitalists in Singapore (Women Founders Network)
• 2017 – Top 8 Trailblazers Under ’40s (The Peak Magazine Singapore)
• 2018 – Asia Pacific Entrepreneurial Award for Outstanding and Exemplary Achievements in Entrepreneurship for The Financial Sector (Enterprise Asia Singapore)
•2019 Most admired Leaders Award presented by Herald Global
•2020 TOP 100 Inspirational LinkedIn Icons in Malaysia.
