Why Solar Can’t Beat Coal, Yet: Fixing SEA’s Power Market

In the last four years, Southeast Asia’s electricity demand has surged by 24%. Yet, despite the falling cost of renewables, nearly 80% of that new demand was met by coal and gas. The problem isn't the technology, it's a "locked-in" market structure that indirectly blocks the green transition Alexa…

Talent as Infrastructure: Building the Capability Behind Innovation

What does it really take to turn innovation into consistent delivery? In this episode, the focus shifts from capital and programmes to the people behind the progress. Because while funding can accelerate ideas, it is talent, skills, and experience that determine whether companies can execute, compe…

Malaysia’s 59 IPOs Raised $1.4B, Singapore’s 13 Raised $2B

In 2025, Malaysia had 59 IPOs raising US$1.4 billion, the highest volume in the region, but when we look at the money, Singapore raised US$2 billion with just 13 deals. So Malaysia won on volume, but Singapore won on value. Wong Kar Choon from Deloitte Malaysia joins BFM Enterprise Explores to unp…

The "Sahur Spike": When Ad Prime Time Shifts to Pre-Dawn

For 11 months of the year, the digital economy follows a predictable rhythm: traffic climbs in the morning, peaks at lunch, and winds down at night. But during Ramadan, that rhythm is turned upside down. Welcome to the "Sahur Spike", a pre-dawn prime time where online activity surges across Malays…

Unbundling The Nation State?

For centuries, "nation" and "state" were inseparable. You needed physical territory to have a nation. But what if that is no longer true? Nirbhay Handa, CEO of Multipolitan, argues that we are witnessing the "unbundling" of sovereignty. He draws a critical distinction between a Nation State (def…

The 5% Hurdle: Why Agentic AI Isn’t Scaling

Agentic AI promises systems that do not just generate responses, but execute real business tasks. Yet new data shows that only around 5 per cent of enterprise AI agent projects have made it into production, with most stuck in prolonged pilot phases due to poor data, siloed organisations, and unclea…

From Diagnosis to Scale: Rethinking How Startups Are Supported

What does it really take to move a company from early promise to real growth? In this episode, we shift the focus from funding alone to the structured journey founders must go through to build, validate, and scale. Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all programmes, the emphasis is on tailored pat…

How AI is Starving the Internet

For decades, the internet ran on a simple economic contract: creators publish content, search engines organise it, and humans click on it. That click was the currency of the open web. But in 2025, that contract is unraveling. Nan Hao Maguire of Cloudflare reveals that the internet is shifting from…

Star Trek or Wall-E? When AI Does Everything

We often talk about AI disrupting jobs, but Peng T. Ong (Co-Founder of Monk's Hill Ventures) is talking about something far more absolute: a singularity. In his essay, "The Economic Singularity: Life as Work Transforms," Peng argues we are approaching a tipping point where the marginal cost of lab…

Are Malaysian MSMEs Ready For Visit Malaysia 2026?

Running a business built on local craft and grit is a cornerstone of Malaysian culture. But as the nation prepares for the massive influx of Visit Malaysia 2026, "passion" alone may no longer be enough to scale. While MSMEs represent 97% of all registered businesses and contribute 38% of the nation…