Matt is the Chief Innovation Officer of Sunway Group, one of Southeast Asia’s leading conglomerates with 13 business divisions across more than 50 locations. He’s also the Founding Director and CEO of Sunway iLabs, an award-winning innovation lab that focuses on 4 key areas: corporate venture capital, startup accelerator, venture builder, and entrepreneurship education.
Since 2018, the iLabs ventures portfolio has grown to about 80 startups through direct investments and a fund-of-funds approach. Matt is also leading the venture builder activities, with spin-outs like the 42 Malaysia coding school to develop digital talents, and Sunway XFarms, an agritech company that addresses food security and safety in the region.
Previously he was the Head of Commercialisation Services in PlaTCOM Ventures where he made 11 investments in startups, and facilitated 25 license deals between research universities and industry. In addition, he co-founded three startups in the UK, Singapore, and Malaysia, that focused on biotech, medtech and STEM education. Before he started out as an entrepreneur, Matt was a consultant at the Cambridge-MIT Institute and Library House in Cambridge (UK) and an Analyst at Imperial Innovations in London, which was one of Europe’s leading integrated Tech Transfer and Venture Capital firms before it was acquired by IP Group.
Matt grew up in the Netherlands and was trained at the University of Utrecht, where he gained a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and a MSc in Science & Business. Later he moved to the UK to join the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge as a Research Scientist and served in the leadership team of the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs student society.
Matt was recognised as one of the personalities of the year by PC.com and Business Today for the positive impact on the community through the various innovation projects that he led.
