Jelawang Capital appoints Howard Soh as CEO

Jelawang Capital appoints Howard Soh as CEO

Jelawang Capital, Malaysia’s National Fund-of-Funds and a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, today announced the appointment of Howard Soh as CEO, effective 1 October 2026.

Soh brings two decades of investment, venture-building and operating experience, gained largely in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, he was CEO of Sea Malaysia and director, investments at Ekuinas, in addition to founding and leading the early Malaysian operations of Lazada, Zalora and Foodpanda. He joins Jelawang Capital from LemmaTree, an Asia-based investment firm, where he served as group chief investment officer. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company and CIMB. Soh holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an LLM from Tsinghua University.

Jelawang Capital chairman Hisham Hamdan said, “On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Soh as CEO of Jelawang Capital. Soh brings institutional investment experience, venture building and operating leadership in Malaysian technology businesses to an organisation whose programmes are now growing. I look forward to seeing him lead the strategic direction of Jelawang Capital and further strengthen its approach to investing through and partnering with fund managers, as it continues to catalyse Malaysia’s venture capital and startup ecosystem.”

Jelawang Capital supports the broader Ekonomi Madani framework and forms part of Khazanah’s US$245 million (RM1 billion) allocation under Dana Impak to strengthen Malaysia’s venture capital and startup ecosystem, nurture high-growth entrepreneurs and mobilise greater private and institutional capital into the ecosystem.