This article is part of a series produced in collaboration with Sunway iLabs, spotlighting emerging startups from the LaunchX 2025/2026 cohort.
Open to university startups across Malaysia, LaunchX is the university startup accelerator programme that turns validated ideas into fundable startups, co-organised by Sunway University, Sunway iLabs, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), and supported by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
For most small business owners, understanding the financial health of their company often means waiting for month-end reports, deciphering accounting jargon, or paying thousands of ringgit for professional advice.
For accountants, the reality isn’t much better. Despite years of training, many still spend countless hours buried in spreadsheets, reconciling transactions and manually entering data.
It was this contradiction that sparked the creation of Velqen, an AI-powered financial operating system built to make CFO-level financial intelligence accessible to every Malaysian business.
A Problem Seen From Both Sides
Velqen was founded by high school friends Mah Bo Wen and Poon Tze Jian, whose vastly different backgrounds became one of the startup’s greatest strengths.
Bo Wen, an ACCA-trained finance professional who provides CFO advisory to businesses, experienced first-hand how much of the accounting profession still relies on repetitive manual work despite rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, Tze Jian, an engineer by training, struggled with an entirely different problem. Every attempt to understand business finance or evaluate a startup idea felt inaccessible because existing financial software was designed for accountants—not entrepreneurs.
After exploring ventures across retail, e-commerce, education and other industries, the duo realised they were looking at the same problem from opposite ends.
“The technology already exists,” the founders explain. “The gap is that financial software still assumes everyone speaks the language of accounting.”
Building an AI That Speaks Human
Instead of building another bookkeeping platform, Velqen positions itself as an AI financial assistant capable of handling both operational accounting tasks and strategic financial decision-making.
The platform automates bookkeeping functions including OCR document extraction, transaction categorisation and reconciliation before translating financial information into plain-English business advice.
Rather than presenting complex financial ratios, Velqen aims to answer the questions business owners actually ask:
“Am I running out of cash?”
“Which customers are paying late?”
“What should I fix first?”
Its conversational interface delivers actionable recommendations on cashflow runway, debtor and creditor ageing, profitability trends, tax computation and overall business performance without requiring users to understand accounting terminology.
Democratising the CFO
Malaysia’s SME landscape presents a sizeable opportunity.
Nearly 80% of Malaysian businesses fall within the SME and MSME category, yet many operate without dedicated finance teams. Business owners often either manage accounts themselves—with significant compliance risks—or outsource accounting services that can cost between RM1,000 and RM5,000 every month.
Velqen believes there is room for a third option.
By offering CFO-level insights through AI, the founders hope to give small businesses access to financial guidance previously available only to companies that could afford full-time finance executives.
The startup isn’t attempting to replace established accounting software such as SQL Account or AutoCount. Instead, it aims to sit above existing systems, transforming raw financial data into meaningful business decisions.
As the founders put it, traditional accounting software tells users what happened. Velqen wants to tell them what to do next.
Betting on AI—And Timing
The founders believe the emergence of agentic AI has fundamentally changed what’s possible.
Where previous generations of accounting software focused on record-keeping, Velqen sees an opportunity to automate entire financial workflows while delivering real-time strategic advice around the clock.
Beyond automation, the company is also investing in locally controlled AI infrastructure designed specifically for Malaysian financial systems, placing an emphasis on security, transparency and sovereign data ownership.
More Than Funding
Like many early-stage startups, Velqen’s roadmap depends heavily on execution.
Investment, the founders say, would accelerate three priorities: expanding product capabilities, launching commercially into Malaysia’s SME market and transforming the current demonstration platform into a fully scalable SaaS business.
Future product plans include integrations with accounting software, banking systems and legal and tax advisory capabilities, while partnerships with accounting firms and government digitalisation programmes are expected to support customer acquisition.
Winning Trust Before Scale
Building financial software brings unique challenges.
Trust remains the company’s biggest hurdle, particularly when businesses are expected to share highly sensitive financial information.
Rather than relying on aggressive marketing, Velqen plans to secure early adoption through professional networks, consultancy relationships and institutional partnerships that validate both the technology and its compliance standards.
The company also acknowledges competing against entrenched accounting platforms but sees its positioning as fundamentally different.
Instead of serving accountants, Velqen is built for business owners who need answers—not accounting lessons.
Lessons From University Entrepreneurship
Both founders developed their entrepreneurial instincts long before launching Velqen.
Between startup competitions, multiple venture attempts, university studies and building communities, they learned to execute under pressure while refining ideas through continuous iteration.
Those experiences, they say, taught them a lesson that continues to shape Velqen today:
The best technology isn’t necessarily the most sophisticated—it’s the one that solves a real customer’s problem.
Looking Five Years Ahead
If the founders succeed, they envision a future where every Malaysian SME—whether it’s a restaurant in Setapak, an online seller in Penang or a freelancer in Bangsar—begins the day with the same quality of financial intelligence currently reserved for companies with dedicated CFOs.
Instead of reacting to financial problems after they occur, businesses would receive proactive alerts, strategic recommendations and AI-generated insights before opening a single spreadsheet.
Ultimately, Velqen hopes to shift accounting away from being purely a compliance exercise towards becoming an everyday strategic advantage.
The founders aren’t trying to replace accountants.
They’re trying to make great financial advice available to everyone.