Corporate counsel for
founders, funds and boards.
A Kuala Lumpur corporate firm built for growth companies — company formation and structuring, venture and growth financing, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets — advising founders, funds and boards from the first round to the exit.
Counsel for every stage of the company
We are built for growth companies. Whether you are forming, funding, scaling or heading for an exit, one team follows the business through — so the structure you build early still fits when the term sheet arrives.
Form
Incorporate and structure a business that is investable from day one.
Fund
Raise capital — from the first SAFE to institutional rounds — on terms you can live with.
Scale
The contracts, people and compliance that a growing company runs on.
Which structure fits your business?
Answer four quick questions for an indicative recommendation on the right vehicle, an approximate set-up cost and timeline, and the team that would handle it. This is guidance to start a conversation — not legal or tax advice, and we always confirm the answer with you before anything is filed.
This is general guidance generated from your answers, not legal or tax advice, and it does not create a solicitor–client relationship. The right vehicle depends on the full facts — we confirm it with you before anything is incorporated.
Eight practices, one transaction team
Corporate and commercial work, mapped to the founder’s journey. Every practice is partner-led and works alongside the others — the deal, the tax and the enforcement view in the same room.
Company Formation & Structuring
The vehicle you incorporate on day one decides how you raise, how you are taxed, and how cleanly you can exit. We help founders choose and build the right structure — and fix the ones that were set up in a hurry.
Explore FUND 02Venture & Growth Financing
We act for founders raising and for the funds investing — from the first SAFE to a priced Series C. Because we sit on both sides of the table regularly, we know which terms are market and which are worth pushing back on.
Explore SCALE 03Commercial & Technology Contracts
As you scale, your contracts become assets an investor or buyer will read line by line. We draft the commercial and technology agreements — customer, supplier, platform, data — so they hold up commercially and in diligence.
Explore SCALE 04Employment, ESOP & Incentives
Scaling a team brings employment obligations, share-option schemes and, sometimes, restructurings. We advise on all three — and design the ESOP that keeps your best people aligned with the cap table.
Explore EXIT 05Mergers & Acquisitions
We run M&A processes end to end — share and asset acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and inbound foreign investment — for buyers and sellers. Our job is to protect your position in the documents and keep the deal moving.
Explore FUND 06Private Equity & Fund Investment
We act for funds and for the companies they back — fund formation and first close, growth and control investments, and the eventual realisation. We know what institutional money needs to see, and how to give it to them without over-lawyering.
Explore EXIT 07Capital Markets & IPOs
We take companies to listing on Bursa Malaysia and advise listed issuers on their continuing obligations, secondary fundraisings and take-privates. Capital markets is a discipline of preparation, and we start early.
Explore SCALE 08Corporate Disputes & Enforcement
Deals do not always hold. We act when they do not — shareholder and oppression disputes, warranty and indemnity claims after a sale, and urgent injunctions — and we bring the enforcement view into the room while a deal is still being drafted.
ExploreThe work speaks first
A sample of recent matters. Publicity rules mean we let the deals — not testimonials — do the talking.
Series B equity financing
Acquisition of a last-mile delivery business
ACE Market IPO
Private-equity control investment
Series A led by a regional fund
Rights issue and capital raising
60/40 renewables joint venture
Founder trade-sale exit
Where we spend our time
Deep familiarity with the industries our clients build in — the regulation, the deal norms and the money that flows through them.
Fintech & Payments
Payments, lending, e-wallets, insurtech and the licensing and structuring that sits underneath them.
Enterprise Software & SaaS
Recurring-revenue businesses — contracting, IP, data and the metrics investors diligence.
Consumer, Retail & Franchise
Brands, D2C and franchise networks scaling across Malaysia and the region.
Food & Beverage
Multi-outlet F&B groups, franchising and the private-equity money that backs them.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Clinics, health-tech and medical device businesses navigating regulation and investment.
Manufacturing & E&E
Electrical, electronics and industrial groups, foreign investment and cross-border M&A.
Logistics & Mobility
Fulfilment, last-mile and mobility platforms consolidating a fragmented market.
Renewables & Energy
Solar, clean energy and the joint ventures and project vehicles that finance them.
Corporate advice with its feet in the market.
From the Tun Razak Exchange to the technology corridor of Penang, we act for the companies building Malaysia’s next generation of businesses.
Partners you actually work with
At Chong Zaki & Raj the partner you meet is the partner who does the work. Meet a few of them.
Independently ranked
Because the Publicity Rules 2001 forbid client testimonials, we point instead to the independent legal directories.
Ranked for Mergers & Acquisitions in Malaysia, with Financial and Corporate work also recognised. Nicholas Chong and Adrian Fong are listed among the guide’s ranked practitioners.
Recognised for Corporate/M&A (Malaysia). Nicholas Chong is ranked for Corporate/M&A and Rebecca Tan for Dispute Resolution.
Recommended for Corporate and M&A and for Investment Funds. Sarah Lim is named a Rising Star; Nurul Aisyah Kamal and Daniel Ooi are recommended in Employment and Tax respectively.
Recognised for Technology & Telecommunications and Corporate/M&A in Malaysia. Adrian Fong is listed among ranked lawyers for Corporate/M&A.
Notes for founders and boards
Practical writing on the decisions that actually come up — term sheets, option pools, structures and deals.
The option pool shuffle: who really pays for your ESOP
An option pool created pre-money comes out of the founders’ shareholding, not the new investor’s. Here is how the “shuffle” works, and how to model it before you sign a term sheet.
Reading a term sheet: the five lines that decide your round
A venture term sheet is mostly market-standard. The value is in knowing the handful of terms that are not, and which of them are worth spending your negotiating capital on.
Sdn Bhd or LLP? Choosing the right vehicle at the start
The vehicle you incorporate on day one shapes how you raise, how you are taxed and how cleanly you exit. A practical guide to the choice founders most often get wrong.
Tell us what you are building.
Whether you are incorporating, raising a round, buying a business or heading for an exit, the first conversation is on us. Send a short outline and the right partner will respond within one working day.