TAR UC marks a historic milestone as it has established an integrated business incubator in its Kuala Lumpur Main Campus. Named as TARC Incubator, the incubator was launched officially on 20 June 2016 at the East Campus where the TARC Incubator is located. The launch of the incubator was graced by YB Datuk Seri Ir Dr Wee Ka Siong, Member of the Board of Trustees, TARC Education Foundation, and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, together with Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR UC.
The TARC Incubator has the distinction of being an integrated business incubator where the incubator will connect all the key stakeholders such as investors, funders, business support service providers, mentors, relevant Government agencies and community of entrepreneurs to form an entrepreneurship ecosystem that will promote innovation and entrepreneurship. Such setup also enables the TARC Incubator to be a one-stop centre for entrepreneurs to incubate and grow their business propositions with high potentials to be start-ups. The TARC Incubator is open to mainly TAR UC students, staff, alumni as well as the public.
Datuk Seri Ir Dr Wee Ka Siong in his speech highlighted that the setting up of the TARC Incubator was opportune to bring innovation and entrepreneurship to the fore. “The setting up of TARC Incubator is timely to synergise innovation and entrepreneurship under one roof. At the same time, the TARC Incubator is TAR UC’s response to the call of the Government to promote and inculcate innovation and entrepreneurship as delineated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint,” he said.
Meanwhile, Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok in his welcome speech shared the establishment of the TARC Incubator is in line with the aspiration of TAR UC to be an entrepreneurial university. He said: “The setting up of the TARC Incubator is also aligned with TAR UC’s aspiration to become an entrepreneurial university. Over the last ten years, TAR UC has been actively nurturing and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship among its students, faculty and campus communities with the goal of supporting the industry and the nation’s economy.”
The TARC Incubator will consist of two aspects, namely the Startup Academy and the Incubator itself. In the Startup Academy, budding entrepreneurs requiring more knowledge on entrepreneurship will undergo business and other specific training on entrepreneurship to gain deeper understanding. The training is conducted on face-to-face basis as well as online. Meanwhile, aspiring entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas at the Incubator and the ideas which are found to be promising will be further developed to become market-ready and investment-ready.
As of now, the TARC Incubator has partnered with DOERS Education Group, GDS Medianet, Malaysia Peng Siong Teh Clan Association, Deloitte Tax Services, Securities Services, KOJADI, AKASAA and Cradle Fund.
Apart from the launch of TARC Incubator, the event also witnessed the launch of the TAR UC – DOERS Venture Incubation Programme which joins TAR UC and DOERS Education Group together to provide a platform that encourages entrepreneurship among TAR UC students by giving students with viable business proposals the opportunity to incubate their ideas through this programme. DOERS Education Group is a renowned Taipei-based organisation that specialises in providing high-level business training and entrepreneurship education. The partnership with DOERS Education Group will benefit TAR UC students aspiring to be entrepreneurs as DOERS Education Group has an established entrepreneurship ecosystem which includes large pool of successful entrepreneurs, mentors and funders. In addition, University of Soochow, a partner of DOERS Education Group, had also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with TAR UC for the purpose of cultural exchange and incubation activities.
