It was for this reason that it declined to take up a stake in ride-hailing service provider Grab a decade ago.

Grab eventually found a willing partner in Temasek, Singapore’s equivalent to Khazanah, and has gone on to become a billion-dollar company.

Grab went on to raise S$4.5 billion (RM13.8 billion) at a listing on Nasdaq last year,making it the biggest listing in the US by a Southeast Asian company.

Khazanah’s failure to see the potential that Grab offered brought criticisms for what some said was a “missed opportunity” for Malaysia, according to a report on cnbc.com today.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC Squawk Box Asia, Azmil said it was in Khazanah’s DNA to manage large investments. “(Venture capital) investing is not really what we do, and it’s not really our expertise and skills set,” he told the network.

Instead, he said, Khazanah would seed investments into VC funds that would then invest in companies in the region.

Nonetheless, he agreed that it was important for Malaysia to support its entrepreneurs and to retain talent.

Azmil also gave an assurance that Khazanah would continue to help Malaysian start-ups through an “indirect approach” of investing in funders that take up stakes in new enterprises.

Khazanah could eventually invest directly in these companies once they have matured to a size that meets its investment criteria, he told CNBC.

It was for this reason that Khazanah invested in Grab’s rival Uber through an intermediary funder.

Grab has gone on to become the dominant player in the ride-hailing business across Southeast Asia.

The company has been incurring losses since its listing. In the first quarter of FY2022, it posted a net loss of S$435 million (RM1.3 billion) although revenue rose to S$228 million (RM702 million).