In 2008, Alann Tan returned from New Zealand with his degree but no business plan, driven home by his father's cancer diagnosis. To survive, he and his brother opened a humble market stall selling pineapple tarts and Chinese New Year kuih. Despite a RM500,000 early loss that nearly wiped them out, that small survival mechanism quietly laid the foundation for what is now a sophisticated, multi-brand wellness and gifting empire.



Today, JYY Group is a fully bootstrapped, profitable enterprise generating tens of millions in annual revenue across Malaysia. The portfolio is strategically split across three distinct pillars: Jin Ye Ye for festive hampers, JYNNS for modern daily wellness, and the heritage bird's nest brand Lo Hong Ka. Acquiring Lo Hong Ka and its manufacturing plant in 2022 allowed the group to take full control of its production, fueling an expansion to over 30 retail outlets and preparing the company for significant capital expenditure to build a new industrial park and regional headquarters.



The group's ultimate ambition is to elevate Malaysian natural assets onto the global stage, specifically aiming to do for local Trigona honey what New Zealand did for Manuka. This vision recently materialised with the launch of the MY Treasure flagship at KLIA2, positioning curated Malaysian products as premium gifts for international travellers. Alann joins us to discuss the financial mechanics of running a multi-brand retail ecosystem, the strategic value of owning your own manufacturing, and what it truly takes to build a premium positioning for an underdog ingredient.

In 2008, Alann Tan returned from New Zealand with his degree but no business plan, driven home by his father's cancer diagnosis. To survive, he and his brother opened a humble market stall selling pineapple tarts and Chinese New Year kuih. Despite a RM500,000 early loss that nearly wiped them out, that small survival mechanism quietly laid the foundation for what is now a sophisticated, multi-brand wellness and gifting empire.Today, JYY Group is a fully bootstrapped, profitable enterprise generating tens of millions in annual revenue across Malaysia. The portfolio is strategically split across three distinct pillars: Jin Ye Ye for festive hampers, JYNNS for modern daily wellness, and the heritage bird's nest brand Lo Hong Ka. Acquiring Lo Hong Ka and its manufacturing plant in 2022 allowed the group to take full control of its production, fueling an expansion to over 30 retail outlets and preparing the company for significant capital expenditure to build a new industrial park and regional headquarters.The group's ultimate ambition is to elevate Malaysian natural assets onto the global stage, specifically aiming to do for local Trigona honey what New Zealand did for Manuka. This vision recently materialised with the launch of the MY Treasure flagship at KLIA2, positioning curated Malaysian products as premium gifts for international travellers. Alann joins us to discuss the financial mechanics of running a multi-brand retail ecosystem, the strategic value of owning your own manufacturing, and what it truly takes to build a premium positioning for an underdog ingredient.

The flagship entrepreneurship show on BFM, featuring personal business stories from early stage start-ups, all the way to billionaire octogenarians in Malaysia and abroad. Notable guests include Martin Cooper (father of the mobile phone), Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks), Ralph Henry Baer (father of video games), Tony Buzan (Mindmap Guru), Isaac Tigrett (Hard Rock Cafe founder), Robert Kiyosaki (Financial Guru), Nick Vujicic (motivational speaker) and more. Tap into this valuable resource of shared experiences for the SME industry, which also touches on news, issues and trends affecting the business community and beyond.

Open For Business

Discover fresh concepts, tackle obstacles, and unleash growth - Open For Business is the dynamic show where BFM engages with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and industry trailblazers, igniting inspiration, sparking success, and exploring new business models.

Malaysia's Natural Treasures, Waiting to Be Discovered

Open your brand's Instagram and honestly ask if you would follow the account if you did not work there. Most corporate social media pages function like boring bulletin boards, treating creators merely as distribution channels with audiences attached. Recognising this flaw after a decade leading Gushcloud Malaysia, Wan Hou Yin left to launch empwr in January 2026 alongside a former colleague and one of Malaysia's most recognisable digital talents.



That talent is Mohamad Sofian Abdullah, better known as Sofyank. Famous for his VFX collaborations with Hollywood stars and winning Zach King's Ultimate VFX Challenge, Sofyank is not just a client on the agency roster — he is a co-founder. This distinction drives empwr's entire business thesis. By treating creators as genuine creative partners, the agency leverages their cultural instincts to produce content audiences actually want to watch. This approach rapidly built a bootstrapped, seven-figure business that reached profitability in just three months, highlighted by a massive Dutch Lady livestream with Khairul Aming that generated RM400,000 in sales.



Hou Yin and Sofian join us to discuss the fundamental difference between a traditional influencer campaign and a genuine creator collaboration. We examine the commercial realities of running their fast-growing agency, what it actually changes when you bring a top-tier digital creator into the boardroom, and whether the traditional advertising industry is finally ready to let go of outdated marketing strategies.

Open your brand's Instagram and honestly ask if you would follow the account if you did not work there. Most corporate social media pages function like boring bulletin boards, treating creators merely as distribution channels with audiences attached. Recognising this flaw after a decade leading Gushcloud Malaysia, Wan Hou Yin left to launch empwr in January 2026 alongside a former colleague and one of Malaysia's most recognisable digital talents.That talent is Mohamad Sofian Abdullah, better known as Sofyank. Famous for his VFX collaborations with Hollywood stars and winning Zach King's Ultimate VFX Challenge, Sofyank is not just a client on the agency roster — he is a co-founder. This distinction drives empwr's entire business thesis. By treating creators as genuine creative partners, the agency leverages their cultural instincts to produce content audiences actually want to watch. This approach rapidly built a bootstrapped, seven-figure business that reached profitability in just three months, highlighted by a massive Dutch Lady livestream with Khairul Aming that generated RM400,000 in sales.Hou Yin and Sofian join us to discuss the fundamental difference between a traditional influencer campaign and a genuine creator collaboration. We examine the commercial realities of running their fast-growing agency, what it actually changes when you bring a top-tier digital creator into the boardroom, and whether the traditional advertising industry is finally ready to let go of outdated marketing strategies.

The Creator Collaboration Advantage

Traditional hotels often force guests to pay for luxury features they simply do not use. Recognising this gap, Benny Ong and his co-founders launched KiN Hotel Group in 2023. Coming from diverse backgrounds in technology, marketing, and real estate, they viewed their complete lack of hospitality experience as a massive competitive advantage. By treating operations as a blank canvas and avoiding legacy corporate structures, they implemented a philosophy of "value engineering” - stripping away expensive grand lobbies and converting underutilised rooms into practical, modern spaces like modular mini-gyms.



This lean, technology-driven approach quickly proved highly successful. Their first proof of concept in Vietnam saw average room rates jump from $45 USD to over $100 USD per night while maintaining an impressive 90 percent occupancy rate. Rather than buying buildings or relying heavily on traditional management contracts, KiN Hotel Group operates an asset-light model focused on long-term leases and rapid refurbishments. By dealing directly with vendors, they can completely turn over a property in just eight weeks, allowing them to target a return on equity within three to four years.



Benny joins us to discuss the operational realities of scaling an independent hotel brand with a target of adding up to 2,000 rooms annually. They explore the strategic thinking behind their recent RM19.8 million, 20-year lease for Kuala Lumpur's Maya Hotel, how they plan to heavily integrate artificial intelligence to offset rising labour costs, and their ambitious roadmap toward a potential public listing by 2030 as they expand aggressively across Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and China.

Traditional hotels often force guests to pay for luxury features they simply do not use. Recognising this gap, Benny Ong and his co-founders launched KiN Hotel Group in 2023. Coming from diverse backgrounds in technology, marketing, and real estate, they viewed their complete lack of hospitality experience as a massive competitive advantage. By treating operations as a blank canvas and avoiding legacy corporate structures, they implemented a philosophy of "value engineering” - stripping away expensive grand lobbies and converting underutilised rooms into practical, modern spaces like modular mini-gyms.This lean, technology-driven approach quickly proved highly successful. Their first proof of concept in Vietnam saw average room rates jump from $45 USD to over $100 USD per night while maintaining an impressive 90 percent occupancy rate. Rather than buying buildings or relying heavily on traditional management contracts, KiN Hotel Group operates an asset-light model focused on long-term leases and rapid refurbishments. By dealing directly with vendors, they can completely turn over a property in just eight weeks, allowing them to target a return on equity within three to four years.Benny joins us to discuss the operational realities of scaling an independent hotel brand with a target of adding up to 2,000 rooms annually. They explore the strategic thinking behind their recent RM19.8 million, 20-year lease for Kuala Lumpur's Maya Hotel, how they plan to heavily integrate artificial intelligence to offset rising labour costs, and their ambitious roadmap toward a potential public listing by 2030 as they expand aggressively across Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and China.

30 Hotels in 3 Years with No Hospitality Background

Traditional cross-border payments are plagued by a severe lack of predictability. Relying on an outdated correspondent banking network and the SWIFT system, global money transfers are often slow and leave customers waiting without any clarity on when their funds will arrive. Raj Kamal, an executive with two decades of experience in the payments industry, realised the core issue was a lack of universal regulation. In 2022, he founded TransFi, betting that fiat-pegged stablecoins could provide instant settlement without the need for trusted counterparties, effectively bypassing the cumbersome legacy system entirely.



Focusing heavily on emerging markets, TransFi allows customers to transact using familiar local payment methods like DuitNow. Behind the scenes, the platform seamlessly converts the local currency into stablecoins to move the value across borders, before instantly paying it out in the recipient's local currency. This ensures a faster, highly predictable experience where the end-user never actually has to handle cryptocurrency. To manage this safely at scale, the company heavily integrates AI for rigorous global compliance checks, real-time transaction reconciliation, and automated customer service capabilities.



Serving institutions, large remittance companies, and e-commerce merchants, TransFi operates at a cost up to 50 percent lower than traditional alternatives. This operational efficiency has driven massive growth, leading to a $19.2 million Series A funding round led by Turing Financial Group in March 2026. Having already processed over $1 billion in volume with 16 times revenue growth since their seed round, Raj joins us to discuss his strategy for hitting $5 billion in transaction volume this fiscal year and why he believes stablecoins will completely reshape the global payments industry by 2030.

Traditional cross-border payments are plagued by a severe lack of predictability. Relying on an outdated correspondent banking network and the SWIFT system, global money transfers are often slow and leave customers waiting without any clarity on when their funds will arrive. Raj Kamal, an executive with two decades of experience in the payments industry, realised the core issue was a lack of universal regulation. In 2022, he founded TransFi, betting that fiat-pegged stablecoins could provide instant settlement without the need for trusted counterparties, effectively bypassing the cumbersome legacy system entirely.Focusing heavily on emerging markets, TransFi allows customers to transact using familiar local payment methods like DuitNow. Behind the scenes, the platform seamlessly converts the local currency into stablecoins to move the value across borders, before instantly paying it out in the recipient's local currency. This ensures a faster, highly predictable experience where the end-user never actually has to handle cryptocurrency. To manage this safely at scale, the company heavily integrates AI for rigorous global compliance checks, real-time transaction reconciliation, and automated customer service capabilities.Serving institutions, large remittance companies, and e-commerce merchants, TransFi operates at a cost up to 50 percent lower than traditional alternatives. This operational efficiency has driven massive growth, leading to a $19.2 million Series A funding round led by Turing Financial Group in March 2026. Having already processed over $1 billion in volume with 16 times revenue growth since their seed round, Raj joins us to discuss his strategy for hitting $5 billion in transaction volume this fiscal year and why he believes stablecoins will completely reshape the global payments industry by 2030.

Malaysia's Natural Treasures, Waiting to Be Discovered

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