PETRONAS Innovation Garage Nurtures Employee-Driven Start-ups, Connects Them to Potential Partners and Investors

KUALA LUMPUR, 13 September 2024 – PING23 Sdn Bhd or PETRONAS Innovation Garage (PING), a wholly-owned subsidiary of PETRONAS Leadership Centre, recently hosted the PING Open Day, providing five employee start-ups incubated in-house the opportunity to showcase their solutions to corporate leaders, early-stage investors and ecosystem builders present at the event held at Petrosains, Suria KLCC today.

PING serves as a catalyst for employee-driven entrepreneurship, aiming to harness the innovative potential and entrepreneurial spirit of PETRONAS employees. During the event, some of these start-ups successfully secured fundings and partnerships as a head start in their entrepreneurship journey.  

“PING represents PETRONAS’ commitment to nurturing our budding entrepreneurs - their talent, drive and ownership in delivering solutions that solve important problems, shape industries, and touch lives. By encouraging employees to think outside the box, take risks, and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, PING fosters a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, which can have ripple effects across PETRONAS, the industry and beyond. Employee ventures that emerge from PING have the potential to create new jobs and employment opportunities for the nation,” said Ruslan Islahudin, Vice President and Group Chief Human Resources Officer, PETRONAS.

Incorporated in 2023, PING was established to empower and nurture entrepreneurial employees to transform ideas into innovative solutions and investible ventures. As a corporate incubator, PING supports these entrepreneurs through coaching, mentoring, access to network and resources, facilitated by entrepreneur-friendly policies that would allow them to dedicate themselves to their projects, as founders of their start-ups.

Employees progress through multiple stages from idea validation to venture building before pitching and showcasing their solutions to a panel of judges at PING Demo Day. Successful participants are offered a one-year employment contract with PING to continue building their startups under the company’s support.

“PING is an investment in human capital. We recognise that there are natural entrepreneurs within PETRONAS’ workforce; employees who see opportunities beyond their day jobs and want to seize them, employees who are self-driven and risk takers and, employees who are passionate about creating something on their own and making an impact. PING is established to provide a clear pathway for them to build their ideas into ventures,” said Zafirah Bahiyyah Zulkifli, Chief Executive Officer of PING.  

“When we established the programme, we knew that some of the participants would graduate from the program as entrepreneurs running their own ventures while others would return to their departments as engineers, accountants or managers, enriched with entrepreneurial skillsets and mindset. In either scenario, it’s a win for the organisation,” she added.

During the event, PING also announced an investment from Gobi Partners to JAZRO Robotic Academy (JAZRO), one of the employee start-ups focusing on robotics education, through the Khazanah Nasional Berhad-backed Gobi Dana Impak Ventures (GDIV) fund. This RM1.2 million investment marks a significant milestone for JAZRO, enabling the company to expand its educational offerings and reach more young learners.   

The event also featured a forum titled "Unleashing Entrepreneurship in Corporations," where Zafirah, along with Zehan Teoh, Senior Vice President of Ecosystem Development at Cradle Fund and Jamaludin Bujang, Managing Partner of Gobi Partners, discussed Malaysia's startup landscape, corporate innovation programs and the investment climate.