KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — Malaysia’s Athletes For Athletes Solutions Sdn Bhd (AFA) clinched second place at the Korea-Asean AI Development & Startup Competition 2025 (AI Youth Festa), underscoring the country’s rising profile in the region’s artificial intelligence (AI) innovation landscape.
In a statement, Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd said the Malaysian startup was recognised for its strong market potential and contribution to the sports technology ecosystem through AI-driven community engagement during the event held from Nov 3 – 5 in Kuala Lumpur.
Cradle Group Chief Executive Officer Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke said Malaysia’s co-implementation of the initiative reflected its commitment to nurturing regional innovation.
“As Malaysia leads the Asean Chairmanship in 2025, we are honoured to co-implement this initiative that bridges nations through innovation.
“Cradle’s role under Mosti reflects our continued commitment to nurturing early-stage founders, empowering AI startups, and supporting regional partnerships that strengthen Asean’s innovation ecosystem and advance the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.
Organised under the Korea-Asean Digital Innovation Flagship Project (Kadif), the competition was jointly implemented by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency of Korea (Nipa), the Asean Secretariat and Cradle under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti).
The competition featured 22 finalists from 11 countries, following an eight-week acceleration programme led by Y&ARCHER that provided mentorship, investor engagement and business development support.
Cradle said the success of the AI Youth Festa 2025 will pave the way for follow-up initiatives under the Asean Startup Initiative (ASI), expanding access to funding, market connectivity and capacity-building opportunities for startups across the region via the Startup Asean platform.
South Korea‘s Ambassador to Malaysia, Yeo Seung-bae, said the initiative marked a significant step in translating Asean-Korea cooperation into meaningful, people-centred outcomes.
“During last week’s Asean-Korea Summit and the Korea-Malaysia Summit, President Lee Jae-myung underscored the importance of big data and cybersecurity, and reaffirmed Korea’s commitment to strengthening cooperation in the digital and AI sectors,” he said.
“The Korean government will not only enhance government-to-government collaboration, but will also continue to support meaningful, people-centred exchanges such as this startup-driven AI Youth Festa, ensuring that the outcomes of Korea-Asean cooperation are felt by our people in tangible and practical ways,” he added. — Bernama
