Bryan Lim, Khazanah’s head of impact programme and CEO of Jelawang Capital, is stepping down after 20 years at the sovereign wealth fund.
Lim will step down next month for “a short sabbatical”, he wrote on LinkedIn.
Lim was a key member of the team that set up Khazanah’s foreign office in Beijing in 2008, before relocating to Malaysia to spearhead the firm’s Dana Impak fund. He is also head of healthcare investment and represents Khazanah on the board of IHH Healthcare Berhad.
It is understood that an internal CEO has not been decided yet. Jelawang’s board of directors include Khazanah’s chief investment officer Hisham Hamdan; Johan Mohd Roslie, director in the private funds group of Khazanah; Ruswati Othman; and Chris Chia Woon Liat, in addition to Lim.
Meanwhile, the management team currently comprises Lim, co-heads of investment Looi Wen Jie and Syed Husain Albar, head of transformation Radin Faizal Baidrul Ikram, and head of strategic relationship management & special projects Nurlisa Hussin, according to the firm’s website.
Jelawang Capital was formed as Malaysia’s national fund-of-funds after the merger of Malaysia Venture Capital Management (MAVCAP) and Penjana Kapital in July 2024.
The firm is seeded with a 1-billion-ringgit ($236-million) commitment, and it plans to allocate 300 million ringgits for both its Emerging Fund Managers’ Programme (EMP) and Regional Managers’ Initiative (RMI) in 2025.
EMP will back Malaysian venture capital fund managers who are raising their first, second, or third funds. The eligible fund management companies are required to have at least 30% Malaysian shareholding.
Meanwhile, RMI calls for international general partners or venture generators, with the aim to facilitate the re-domiciliation of global companies in Malaysia and attract quality talent to the local ecosystem.
Jelawang is set to announce its fund partners soon.
The national fund-of-funds is not the sole party to focus on revamping the Malaysian venture capital ecosystem. Pension fund KWAP also operates the 500-million-ringgit Dana Perintis to back VC managers, while its 6-billion-ringgit Dana Pemacu is designed for the growth-stage private equity sector.
