To Fund a Startup, Go to Malaysia

When Jim Buck was looking for investors to fund trials for the implantable heart device his startup is developing, the search took him far from the usual stops in Silicon Valley and Boston. He made four trips to Asia last year, courting investors in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Malaysia. “Companies like ours with very promising technology that in years past would have been funded very richly are struggling to find money to even stay in business,” says Buck, a veteran of the cardiac implant industry who became chief executive officer of Mardil Medical in 2010.

The Plymouth (Minn.)-based company, which has four employees, raised $5 million from Malaysia’s government in January and is setting up a research office and hiring engineers in Kuala Lumpur. Mardil’s earlier investors, including the Indian venture capital fund Ventureast, also put in just over $1 million.