Scaling Without Losing Our Heart: Heartworks Selected for Cohort 2 of IKEA Social Entrepreneurship x Biji-biji Initiative's SEAM

More than 77% of Malaysian SMEs remain micro enterprises, and only 1.1% ever reach medium-sized status, according to Deputy Minister Steven Sim in a 2026 report on the country’s MSME sector.

The challenge, officials note, isn’t a shortage of new businesses. It’s helping the ones that exist actually scale. Most founders don’t get stuck because their idea was wrong. They get stuck because the systems, structure, and support behind the business never grew alongside it.

That’s why Heartworks Solution is particularly proud of being selected for Cohort 2 of the Social Enterprise Accelerator Malaysia (SEAM).

Marking where we stand

Heartworks Solution provides reliable virtual assistance with real social impact behind it, employing single mothers, caregivers, and people managing health conditions across Malaysia.

SEAM (a partnership between Biji-biji Initiative and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, with the support of IKEA Malaysia) is an accelerator programme built to strengthen impact-driven organisations tackling social and environmental challenges across Malaysia.

It’s not open to just anyone. SEAM looks for organisations that have already validated their models, are generating revenue, and are ready for structured support to scale sustainably while staying anchored in their mission.

Being selected is proof that the steps Heartworks has taken, both in improving outcomes for our beneficiaries and in delivering more reliably for our clients, are moving in the right direction. It puts Heartworks on the map, adds legitimacy to a growing enterprise, and gives us the structure to scale thoughtfully in the months ahead.

For clients, this translates into more structured systems, stronger leadership, and greater reliability behind every VA you work with.

From one act of help to a thriving community of over 30

Heartworks started small: one act of helping a single mother find remote work that actually fit her life.

Five years later, that single act has grown into a community of close to 30 women, including single mothers, persons with disabilities, and women managing health conditions, built almost entirely through trust and word of mouth.

We’re not resting on that. If anything, this next year is about strengthening what happens behind the scenes: better systems, stronger leadership, and a business resilient enough to keep showing up for the women we serve, even on the days without me holding it all together.

We don’t scale alone

Heartworks has never believed in impact as a solo act, and this cohort makes that even clearer.

We’ll be walking amidst a community of changemakers, including award-winning social enterprises like PichaEats, Ibupreneur, Green Shoots, and Sagemaker Asia, organisations known for their own work in food security, entrepreneurship training, and sustainability, among others.

Over the next 12 months, Heartworks and eight other enterprises will work closely with their IKEA Thought Partners, reflecting on where we stand, spotting new opportunities, testing ideas, reworking approaches, and shaping strategy for the road ahead.

Thoughtful, value-led partnerships like these are the lifeblood of a social enterprise like ours that is always mindful to scale our impact without losing the reason we did all this in the first place.

In a business environment that constantly prioritises growth, profits and speed, Heartworks Solution chooses a more sustainable path of growth, one that we hope leaves no one behind.

What This Means Going Forward

Heartworks Solution offers reliable virtual assistance with real social impact behind it. As an accredited, remote-first social enterprise since 2021, this SEAM milestone isn’t the finish line. It’s structured support to help us scale without losing the heart that first built us.

If you’ve been considering what it might look like to delegate to a virtual assistant who’s backed by real systems, real accountability, and real impact, this is a good time to find out.

Book a free discovery call with Heartworks Solution and see what working with us looks like.