By Pauline James
The SEAM summit marked the end of the 15-month accelerator programme and reflected a central theme — “Impact only scales when the right people are connected” — underscoring SEAM’s focus on strengthening Malaysia’s social enterprise ecosystem through capability building, market access and partnership enablement.
SEAM, a partnership between the Biji-biji Initiative and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, supported by IKEA Malaysia, showed how social enterprises have moved past short-term grant dependency to become business- and corporate-ready. This shift enables longer-term, scalable partnerships.
Convening Public, Private and Ecosystem Stakeholders
The summit brought together representatives from the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (KUSKOP), National Entrepreneurship Institute (INSKEN), programme partners – Sustainable Creative & Innovation Centre (SCENIC), Selangor Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC), and the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Development (CSED) – and ecosystem leaders committed to advancing impact-driven collaboration.
Discussions took place against a backdrop of persistent community livelihood challenges, income disparities, and increasing pressure on Malaysian companies to demonstrate credible ESG practices.
“Building a future-ready Malaysia requires us to rethink how opportunity, sustainability and inclusion come together. What SEAM has demonstrated is that social enterprises are not peripheral to this agenda; they are capable of creating jobs, strengthening communities and delivering solutions that corporates can work with at scale,” said Juliana Adam, Chief Executive Officer of Biji-biji Initiative.
A core feature of the summit was Impact Xchange, a curated session designed to give corporates direct access to founders and impact models through thematic elevator pitches.
Inclusive Employment and Dignified Livelihoods
Under inclusive employment, social enterprises such as Angel Community, Batik Boutique, Earth Heir, Lemme Learn and The Asli Co. shared how they were creating dignified income and employment pathways for women, artisans, Orang Asli communities, refugees and neurodiverse individuals through commercially viable models.
The Asli Co., in particular, reflected growing national recognition for community-made products following the Queen’s (full name) consent to select handmade items by B40 women, single mothers and Orang Asli as Istana Negara souvenirs.
The session also featured circular economy and waste management enterprises, including Saving Graze, Moms Village, Oupus Organics and Upcycled, which demonstrated how food waste, plastic waste and discarded materials were being transformed into products, jobs and scalable community-driven solutions.
Sustainable Agriculture and Indigenous-Led Solutions
In sustainable agriculture and renewable materials, Jiwa Asli Organik highlighted indigenous-led, climate-smart farming approaches that supported food security, livelihoods and ecosystem protection.
The summit also hosted Corporate × Impact Business Speed Dating, a fast-paced matchmaking session that enabled practical discussions around procurement, services, workshops and long-term collaborations. Through curated conversations, corporates and social enterprises explored how impact partnerships could be operationalised and scaled.
“Social enterprises play a key role in building inclusive economies, and long-term impact depends on strong business foundations and, in some cases, broader system-level change. SEAM was designed to strengthen market readiness and operational capabilities, enabling social enterprises to expand beyond project-based initiatives and engage in scalable partnerships with corporates and consumers,” said Managing Director Åsa Skogström Feldt, reinforcing an International perspective through IKEA Social Entrepreneurship
As SEAM closed its first cohort, the programme turned its focus to what comes next. With future pathways including the Biji-biji Pre Accelerator and SEAM Cohort 2, the initiative continued to strengthen opportunities for social enterprises to become partnership-ready and scalable, while encouraging corporates, ecosystem partners and policymakers to integrate social enterprises into procurement, supply chains and long-term collaboration models that deliver both measurable impact and business value.
