Government-owned venture capital company Malaysian Venture Capital Management Bhd (Mavcap) has clarified its funding to Tricubes Bhd, the provider of the 1Malaysia Email project (MyEmail).

In a press statement sent out this afternoon, Mavcap said it had made an investment of RM5.5 million “directly into Tam Tam Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company of Tricubes Bhd”.

azlan But without clarifying if they are indeed not involved with MyEmail, Mavcap chairperson Abdul Samad Alias merely said that Tam Tam is only involved in ‘sales force automation software’.

“Our investee company Tam Tam’s business portfolio includes providing mobile software as a service, namely ‘sales force automation software’ which caters to SMEs involved in sales and marketing and ‘enforcement software’ which is applicable for the police force and local councils, among others,” he said.

“As the largest venture capital company in the country, Mavcap will remain steadfast in our commitment to catalyse the development of Malaysia’s venture capital industry and to spur the growth of ICT companies with such investments."

Tricubes chief executive Khairun Zainal Mokhtar had yesterday reiterated that the company has received funding from Mavcap, though the figure he claimed was RM5.3 million, which Mavcap later corrected.

The MyEmail was announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak last week as one of the 12 additional entry-point projects for the Economic Transformation Programme. The project was touted to provide direct communication between the government and the people.

The premier had earlier insisted that the project estimated to cost RM50 million would be completely privately-funded.

However just days later, a representative from the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) told a radio interview that government agencies may be charged about RM0.50 per email sent, something that Khairun also confirmed.

NONE Khairun ( right ) has also said that the MyEmail was focused on the delivery of bills and notices from the different government agencies to the end user.

While Khairun said that the registration of the email is still voluntary, end-users would still have to pay additional costs for more secure encryption services.

Tricubes has received a GN3 classification from Bursa Malaysia, which the CEO claimed was because the shareholders’ fund was less than 50 percent of the paid-up capital.

“It does not mean to stop us from doing business,” said Khairun, though he later admitted that MyEmail is a “lifeline” to the company in its regularisation process.

Meanwhile, Khairun has held off on commenting on Mavcap’s statement, saying that he will issue a press statement later.