The Vietnamese company, a subsidiary of conglomerate Vingroup JSC, has been moving to expand in the United States, where it hopes to compete with existing automakers.

A VinFast spokesperson said headcount would not shrink in Vietnam where most of the company’s staff, including its factory and engineering operations, are located. It was not immediately clear how many jobs would be affected by the U.S. restructuring.

VinFast said it had hired about 150 people in the United States, many in sales, support and distribution roles as part of a model that bypasses traditional dealerships.

The company, which started operations in 2019, said last week that it would delay its first batch of deliveries to the United States to the second half of February.

In late January, VinFast said it was merging its U.S. and Canadian operations into a single business unit. It did not announce any job cuts at the time.

VinFast said in a statement to Reuters it was looking to “streamline” North American operations and would work with third-parties to “increase the quality and speed of customer service.”

VinFast managers had been told to prepare lists that could cut up to 30% of staff in headquarters operations in Vietnam for review by the company’s founder and chairman, Pham Nhat Vuong, on Monday, two people with knowledge of those discussions said.

VinFast said there would be no net workforce reduction in Vietnam. “We review employee’s quality of work frequently and dismiss those who do not meet our requirements,” it said. “We will recruit new replacements.”

Overseas plans

The company had shipped its first batch of 999 of the electric vehicles to the United States in November and had targeted the first delivery of those VF8 sport utility vehicles in December.

But the vehicles have been held at a port on the U.S. West Coast while the company works on software updates, it has said.

VinFast has expanded staffing over the past several years as it targets growth in the market for EVs in Europe and North America.

The company is waiting for regulatory approval to begin construction of a $4-billion vehicle assembly plant in North Carolina. The company had initially targeted a start of production there next year.

It said in December it had filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “VFS” to fund its expansion.

VinFast is looking to compete with established carmakers at a time when major automakers, led by Tesla, are driving prices down and looking to take advantage of new tax credits for qualifying models in the United States.

VinFast vehicles are not eligible for the $7,500 tax credit in the United States because they are not built in North America.

The post EV startup Vinfast to cut U.S. jobs amid restructuring appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

While some baked sourdough and banana bread during lockdown, Tang focused her energy on people’s business appetites and their hunger for building new enterprises. She was surprised at the number of people who shared her enthusiasm. Informal conversations turned to interviews that became her podcast, another startup story.

“I just love the conceptualisation of startups, the idea of getting your hands dirty and building something from scratch,” Tang said. “I found it really inspiring to hear founders’ stories at that time and the passion escalated.”

While global economies struggled through the Covid-19 pandemic, entrepeneurship in Singapore thrived. Nearly 103,600 new businesses were formed during the past 18 months, significantly outnumbering the 73,000 companies that closed. Entrepreneurs cite the maturity of the venture capitalist (VC) investor market, the ease of company registration and support from government agencies as key reasons the Red Dot stands out as a place to launch their business brainchild.

Private investors hungrily hunt the next Singaporean ‘unicorns’ – a term for privately owned companies with a value of more than $1 billion – to boost the country’s economic power and international reputation.

But while nurturing a hub for fast-growth, high-value innovation, Singapore should make sure that more traditional small businesses are not overlooked.

“The term ‘startup’ [is] most commonly the image of a high-risk, high-growth, venture-funded technology firm,” said Tang. “[But] the vast majority of startups did not originate in Silicon Valley and do not end up with billion dollar IPOs.”

For many entrepreneurs, the ultimate startup dream is to achieve mythical creature status. Unicorns can help boost economies’ global prestige and are key targets for government and private investors’ funding.

In 2021, 19 startups in the region crossed the $1 billion (SGD 1.5 billion) valuation threshold, bringing the Southeast Asian unicorn total to 35. Of these, the lion’s share is in the Lion City: Singapore boasts 15 of these 35 unicorns. 

Joseph Khong, assistant director and head of engagement and communications at Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a trade association representing more than 1,300 of Singapore’s startups, described their ambition to “build as many unicorns as possible and… champion enterprise in Singapore.” 

These startup success stories are an important part of Singapore’s national identity. E-commerce marketplace Carousell is a proudly cited example. Valued at $1.1 billion, the company with a presence in more than ten countries was founded by Singaporeans Quek Siu Rui, Lucas Ngoo and Marcus Tan.

“Our own Singaporean students… made it on the global stage,” Khong said. “We talk about national identity… all the unicorns that have made it in overseas markets, it brings a sense of pride.”

Government agencies such as Enterprise Singapore are providing support, mentoring and networking opportunities for startups and rising entrepreneurs. ACE collaborates with Enterprise Singapore, which also recently expanded its Global Innovation Alliance network. The initiative facilitates market access for startups and small businesses, including a new partnership with Moscow, Russia, and planned inclusion of a further 25 cities over the next five years.

“[With Enterprise Singapore] every other day, you have these awesome opportunities, they have grants that are available,” said Nida Sahar, a tech entrepreneur who launched her Cloud application distribution platform Nife last year, with support from the government agency.

Despite this institutional assistance, competition is fierce and failure rates are high. Even in Singapore, around 30% of new businesses are projected to fail within the first three years.

“A lot of startups, most of them, don’t usually survive for very long,” Khong admitted, citing three main hurdles: funding, talent and market access. He described the issue as a chicken and egg scenario.  “If you don’t have funding, you cannot scale and where you don’t have the talent, then you also cannot secure the right funding because investors won’t really trust you.”

Some feel Singapore’s focus on fast-growth, high-glamour unicorns can come at the expense of other businesses.  

“In the last ten years, Singapore has really embarked very strongly on attracting unicorns,” said Ang Yuit, vice president of the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (ASME). “Over the last six months we are seeing a lot of well-funded unicorns [and] unicorns-to-be competing for talent with SMEs.”

The not-for-profit association was established to develop and protect Singapore’s small and medium enterprises, defined as a business with fewer than 200 workers and annual sales turnover of less than $73.17 million (SGD 100 million).

Around 99% of Singapore’s businesses are SMEs accounting for 72% of the country’s employment. They also are more vulnerable to volatile economic conditions due to limited resources and weaker access to financing.

“The growth trajectory [of an early stage startup] is very different to a typical SME,” Ang said. “The SME is funded more organically… whatever resources they can find. And they don’t have VC or seed money.”

[We need] a healthy tussle between risk taking and accountability

Government support also differs between the two business types. Ang notes that startups have a wealth of available infrastructure. Aspiring entrepreneurs have access to more than 400 incubators and accelerators, including BLOCK71, a tech startup ecosystem builder backed by various businesses, government agencies, and the National University of Singapore. They may also acquire venture capital from government linked organisations such as investment holding company, Temasek.

For SMEs support comes mostly through direct funding, routed through trade organisations such as ASME. While this may seem simple, it’s not always straightforward. “Most SME grants require demonstration of business revenues and profits and certain numbers of years in operation,” Ang explained.

He notes that since new finance minister Lawrence Wong’s appointment, more funds are being set aside to support SMEs. However, with more money comes more stringent audits, and a more risk-averse approach from the trade associations distributing them.

“What will happen is that we end up betting on [what we think is] a sure winner,” Ang said. “[We need] a healthy tussle between risk taking and accountability.”

Around 20 – 30% of the SMEs ASME encounters are from the F&B sector, according to Ang. Hit hard by the pandemic, these small businesses are also often at the brunt of high-rental contracts that are heavily favourable towards tenants: allowing termination of lease at short notice. While F&B workers have received some government support during Covid-19 through initiatives such as the Job Support Scheme, with low short-term revenue and growth prospects, their businesses remain at risk and their failure rate is high.

Ang thinks of Singapore’s bustling Tanjong Pagar and Chinatown neighbourhoods, renowned for its independent shops and cafés.

“Every few months, a guy closes,” he described. 

A cohesive and collaborative approach could benefit all business types. For Khong, the difficulties he sees young startup founders face in building networks and market access can be helped by multinational corporates (MNCs) or even local SMEs “providing the right advice, the right guidance,” or forming partnerships by adopting their solutions.

Ang also expressed that there are beneficial ways to work together. ASME is looking into expanding into the startup space.

“An SME can always reinvent itself with a mindset shift, to be more startup-like,” he suggested. “And very often startup[s] identify a business opportunity, or a market segment that many of the SMEs already did. But they don’t look at it from that perspective… so we see a synergy possibility.”

Tang has turned her podcast into her own entrepreneurial venture, offering business coaching and consultancy to startup founders. She also recently took up a new position as chief of staff and head of communications at another startup, Alchemy Pay, a hybrid payment platform between cryptocurrency (digital financial transactions) and fiat currency (government-backed tender).

For her, the different missions of “small business founders whose aspirations tend to be smaller and more local from the start,” and “high growth, innovative and externally funded start-ups who begin with a strong aspiration to grow,” means that there should be scope for both to bring different strengths to Singapore’s economy. 

“Both types play an important part in every city’s business ecosystem,” Tang said enthusiastically. “[And] there is still so much more space, potential and new creative ideas to be played out. I feel like we’re just scratching the surface.”

The post Singapore’s small business ecosystem goes beyond startup glamour appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

This energy and accessibility are things Hung has brought into the building of his FinTech investment company, Choco Up, launched in 2018. The CEO and co-founder of Asia’s largest revenue-based financing platform spoke to the Globe about overcoming the odds on the road to entrepreneurship, how to level the startup playing field and his advice for the next generation of aspiring business owners.

Choco Up has built its name as a financing platform targeting smaller businesses that would normally be overlooked by traditional venture capitalists investors. Hung’s experience prepared him well for working with this untapped potential of the startup scene.

“I’ve been trying to do small business since 2009,” Hung explained. “So it’s been a long journey!”

Singapore’s skyline of futuristic high-rises gleams with the promise of opportunity. The city-state is building a reputation as a global innovation and business hub. Even amid the economic uncertainty of the pandemic, new businesses were on the rise, with 27,764 registered in the first five months of 2021.

Yet, according to Hung, these businesses don’t launch from a level playing field. Family wealth and connections give certain entrepreneurs a critical leg up on the corporate ladder.

“I come from a really average family. There’s no initial capital,” he shrugged. While this didn’t stem the hungry student’s craving for entrepreneurship, he found the banks’ and venture capitalists’ cautious and conservative approach to funding stopped his ideas from taking off.

“They didn’t work out. Because a lot of times those businesses are not cool or fancy enough for VCs to invest,” he recalled of his early ventures.

It was only after finding numerous fellow business starters who shared his frustrations that he decided to partner with Brian Tsang, “a college buddy in finance” whom he met while studying at the Georgia Institute of Technology, to see if they could create “a product or financial service to help ourselves and people around us.”

From this mission came Choco Up’s creation and Hung and Tsang, the co-founder and COO, keeping their eye on the underdog.  

“These smaller and more vulnerable businesses don’t fit in the mandate of traditional banking. Because traditional banking is, [out of] 20 checkboxes if [you miss] one, you’re denied. But the 19 other checkboxes could be very, very solid. And [with] VCs, if you’re not a really fancy high growth business, they’re probably not going to spend time with you”, Hung remarked. 

He cites an example of a Malaysian company, which used recycled materials for their products across all their merchants. Because the company operated in a niche market, it was hard to get investor backing, but, inspired by their sustainable ethos, Choco Up took a chance.

“I think that was a great thing not just for the business owner or founders, but also for the society and environment,” Hung said. Since then they have made more efforts to align their partnerships with the latest environmental trends, such as EV (electric vehicle) startups across Asia.

The pair are also keen to support diversity across Singapore’s small business landscape, citing a commitment to empower women entrepreneurs, including their work with the CEO and founder of leading Asian insurtech company CXA Group, Rosaline Chow Koo.

To further support small businesses hit by the global health crisis, Choco Up operates on a model called Revenue-based Financing, or RBF. Payments on invested capital can increase or decrease according to their portfolio company’s ongoing revenues.

“A lot of times businesses, when they start, or they open up into a new product or something, you know, the curve is slow until later on,” Hung explained

RBF can give them time to find their feet. It also helps business owners achieve that rare goal of work/life balance by pausing repayments when the business isn’t earning.

“So if it’s Chinese New Year, you shut down shop, you don’t work,” Hung said, describing a common scenario for Singapore’s small companies.

While the entrepreneurs used “Western unicorns” as their business model inspiration, Hung is quick to stress that “Asia is a unique market… we can’t just copy and paste”. He describes the difference between Western countries where, in a wider and more homogenous culture, “people [will] go on eBay, go to Amazon, buy it no frills, the simpler the better” and Southeast Asia, where “it’s very segmented, every country has its own culture. And it’s very personal. As much as people like automation, people still like the human touch.”

Hung and Tsang built these human connections from the ground up. “We used our own personal network, then used our friends’ referrals, [then] other business friends’ referrals. We bootstrapped, went door to door to build a name,” Hung recalled. “It’s still that people need to trust you first in Asia before they use a service. I think that’s the biggest difference.”

The pandemic, and Hung’s personal experience, have taught him that the world of small business has big risks. He is pragmatic about his own achievements and in his advice to future business starters.

“Fail fast, fail cheap,” he suggested. “And if you’re going to try something, try it.  And a lot of it’s going to fail, when you fail, don’t drag, just move on. You know this is not going to be your last gig. This is not the end of your career. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”

Like with chocolate, the sugary high of success may not always be long-lived. But for these business owners who’ve made it big through the pandemic, their good fortune tastes sweet.

The post The Singaporean financing platform levelling the startup playing field appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

“It’s been an exciting and exhilarating ride since 2019,” said Loke Hwee Wong, the APAC vice president and general manager of Boku, an international mobile payments platform founded in 2009. “Thanks or no thanks to COVID, it has sort of exploded.”

But it’s not all big budget glamour. Across the region, more than 70% of the population are ‘unbanked’ consumers: invisible in the world of traditional finance, with no access to bank accounts or credit and debit cards. Small, independent merchants often also lack access to basic financial services. FinTech platforms like Boku can be a vital means to sustain their business.

Boku is focusing on these overlooked sections of society as they target Southeast Asia as a key growth market. As the Singapore Fintech Festival kicks off on the 8th November, Wong spoke to the Globe about what sets Southeast Asia apart from other global markets, the inevitable future of e-wallets and the socially conscious side of digital finance.

In a FinTech ecosystem birthing new jargon as fast as new products, Wong is refreshingly simple in his explanation of the Boku business model.

“Boku is basically a payment aggregator. We aggregate merchants, we aggregate payment methods,” he explained. “That means anything outside of credit cards or debit cards… that’s where we play.”

This playground includes more than 600 global merchant partners with whom Boku users can make payment transactions using their mobile phones. Boku facilitates digital payment transactions between the consumers and merchants, which include some of tech’s biggest players including Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Spotify, Apple, Sony Playstation, and Tencent.

In Southeast Asia, smaller merchants have the biggest need for FinTech. For many Southeast Asian consumers, it could be their only access to everyday financial services. Low financial literacy and the lack of clear credit background checks are stumbling blocks for consumers seeking credit cards from banks. Small business merchants, who are equally stymied by unaffordable banking fees, are a key target in Wong’s Southeast Asian business strategy.

“We’re talking about [people who] don’t even have a banking relationship. They don’t even have a debit card,” he described. “Some of these are maybe farmers [who have] products to sell, for example. But how do they sell? How do they reach out to the world at large?”

For Wong, Boku’s mission requires understanding the unique characteristics of the regional markets in which the company operates. His Southeast Asia strategy is based on two features. 

First, the high mobile phone penetration, “which is almost ubiquitous… everybody regardless of status will own a basic smartphone.”

Second, the large unbanked population, especially in rural communities. “You can imagine the logistical difficulty. To have a credit card, you need to have electricity. You need all these terminals,” explained Wong, “and [in] some of those rural areas that’s difficult.”

To demonstrate the accessibility and mobility of financial services, Wong described how  in Indonesia, GoPay, a local e-wallet company and Boku partner, has turned a lone Gojek driver into a reverse ATM. The passenger, if they want to top up their [digital] wallets, can easily do so by passing cash to the Gojek driver to perform a top up. With the digital currency loaded, the passenger can conveniently pay for his Gojek ride and purchases online digital services such as Spotify music and Netflix video.

When the global health crisis hit, digital platforms became a vital lifeline for those who needed relief quickly. Disbursement quickly became a feature of e-wallets, which was integral in distributing the Indonesian government’s Covid-19 relief fund directly to needy users, cutting out layers of inefficient bureaucracy.

“The traditional way is to give it to some of the state governors. The state governor will distil the money down and sometimes, in certain countries, it’s a bit tricky, it’s a bit complicated,” Wong explained. “By the time [the money] finally reach[es] the end user [it’s been] very long, or some of the money will be gone missing somewhere.” 

By cutting down the lengthy chain of transactions in traditional banking, digital payment platforms have helped increase the efficiency of public aid, he said.

As he shared his expertise on empowering emerging economies, Wong noted the advantages Southeast Asian markets have over the West when adopting new technologies.

“Some of these emerging countries are leapfrogging. They don’t even understand what email is, because to them, the mobile phone is messaging, right? The infrastructure is not set up, like in the traditional western world [where] there is no strong necessity to come up with new innovations,” he said.

Wong believes this lack of infrastructure has accelerated the development of digital financial services.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” he suggested. “We just come up with this disruptive technology. And that’s where this whole FinTech [thing] flourishes.”

Wong predicts that within the next five years, digital wallets will become the main method of making financial transactions across APAC. What started as an alternative payment system is now going mainstream. 

“In our region, the alternative becomes the default,” Wong observed. “Whereas the traditional credit card is becoming more like an alternative now.”

The exception is Singapore, which Wong said stands heads and skyscrapers above the rest.

“Singapore, in our Asia Pacific vision, has always been a bit more discerning,” he opined. “[It] is the only country that has a very robust certification and regulatory framework to govern payments.”

This has given the Lion City a head start in financial market maturity and has proven to be a “very nice test bed” for building a solid reputation for Boku and its merchants.

“With only around 6 million people, you can’t really expect a huge revenue. But it is a very good POC, a proof of concept,” Wong said. “A lot of those merchants or partners, they will always look at Singapore to say, ‘Have you gone live [there]?’”

Looking toward the future, Wong predicts mobile payments will not just be the domain of the unbanked. Within the next few generations, he imagines, everyone from the biggest merchant partner to the “mama and papa” shops in rural communities will have borderless financial access to a global marketplace.

“Imagine when you are suddenly able to sell something to the world,” Wong said. “Just imagine the power of this.”

The post Southeast Asia’s unbanked are banking on FinTech’s accessibility appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Kosoma Kim / Impact Hub 

Looking around Cambodia, one cannot help but be struck by the youth of the nation, and where there is youth there is opportunity. Kosoma Kim is one individual that fully recognizes the potential of Cambodia’s youth as generators of change, which is why she brought her set of skills to Impact Hub, a platform uniting entrepreneurs and creatives.

Earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics, Kosoma worked in a variety of industries during her time in university as a way to gain experience and “find her true self”. In 2017, she joined Impact Hub as a Communication Junior, where she eventually discovered her passion for videography and has since continued to create educational and inspirational content to broaden the shared space’s network. 

I have been part of an inspiring community of change makers, innovators, social entrepreneurs and creatives

With a love of communication and collaboration, Kosoma is always on the lookout for her next chance to engage with people and help them realize their potential, and she has plenty of opportunities. In her role as Business Development and Digital Impact Director, she is responsible for making the latest information available to her audience and facilitating the self-education of Cambodia’s entrepreneurs and creators. 

Kosoma also contributes to and manages the Smart Unipreneurship Platform, the first digital entrepreneurship curriculum endorsed by Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. 

With enough awards to fill a trophy case – including a $10,000 grant from the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) in 2014 – Kosoma continues to offer her dynamic and unique outlook to the next generation of Cambodian innovators. 

Speaking to the influence Impact Hub has had on her and her colleagues, she explained, “I have been part of an inspiring community of changemakers, innovators, social entrepreneurs, and creatives. These people have inspired me to see the world and Cambodia differently with the high hope that together we can make the world a better place to live.”

Sokcheng Seang / Wapatoa 

Helping Cambodia’s youth navigate life and improve society is at the heart of Sokcheng Seang’s work with Wapatoa. Born and raised in Cambodia, the 25-year-old chief-editor’s life changed at the age of 13 when she discovered the internet and the wealth of information that was suddenly at her fingertips. 

Getting her start blogging, Seang made a name for herself in Cambodia’s increasingly digitized youth culture before launching the media collective Wapatoa with co-founder Alix Feschotte in 2018. The pair began generating entertaining digital content with the goal of providing young Cambodians with trustworthy information to help them deal with life’s challenges and live up to their full potential. 

“The world is changing and young people need to be empowered and equipped with the tools to examine the traditions they are handed and the foreign ideas that are imported,” she said.

Producing videos on a wealth of topics ranging from emotional wellness and personal health to financial education and local entrepreneurs, Seang believes that accessing relevant and reliable information is essential for Cambodia’s next generation of culture creators.

If people are respectful of themselves, each other and the earth, they can solve many of society’s problems

She summed up the big picture goals of the project. “We are trying to help young people be kinder to themselves and improve their critical thinking skills because if people are respectful of themselves, each other and the earth, they can solve many of society’s problems.”

Borey Chum / LUMA System

Even before he understood the ins and outs of the technology, Borey Chum knew that he wanted to work with computers. After graduating high school in Siem Reap, Borey – like so many young Cambodians – entered the hospitality industry at the urging of his parents, although his fascination with computers sent him to internet cafes in what little spare time he had.

His time in the hospitality industry allowed him to practice his IT skills by solving problems in the hotels where he worked and eventually inspired him to create LM Systems, an online booking platform used by businesses throughout Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. However, it was his desire to create solutions to benefit society at large that led him to found LUMA System.

I want to do something that impacts the everyday life of lots of people across Cambodia

One of LUMA’s early projects addressed Cambodia’s growing traffic problem by analyzing information about specific vehicle types, speed, and congestion at monitored locations, using AI, Big Data, and computer automation. They have also begun development on a Solid Waste Management Platform in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment. Using a mobile app, the system will provide real-time data about collection schedules, bill payments, and allow citizens to report on collection performance and illegal dumping of waste in Phnom Penh.

As CEO Borey explained his desire to use technology to benefit people, “I want to apply technology to solve other social problems, not just a business owner’s problems. I want to do something that impacts the everyday life of lots of people including myself, my family, friends, and people across Cambodia.”

Monorom Tchaw / Compost City

Out of sight, out of mind. This is a common attitude when it comes to waste collection, however, it isn’t a sentiment shared by Compost City’s founder, Monorom Tchaw. Born and raised in France by Khmer parents, Tchaw returned to Cambodia in September 2015 – however, her journey into the world of waste management began long before her relocation to Phnom Penh.

Inspired equally by stories of the mafia-backed garbage strikes in 1990s Italy and the growing zero-waste movement, Compost City was born out of Tchaw’s personal mission to cut waste out of her life. Shortly after arriving in Phnom Penh, she began volunteering with Young Eco Ambassadors (YEA), organizing seminars and workshops educating the public about sustainability and zero waste living, all while personally composting the organic waste from YEA meetings. 

Compost City is a sustainable company that helps make composting easy and fun

After taking over as the Sustainability Director of Phnom Penh’s Farm to Table restaurant, Tchaw plugged into the entrepreneurial network at Impact Hub where she heard about the SmartSpark competition focusing on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. She went on to win the competition, riding the ensuing momentum directly into the launch of Compost City. 

“Compost City is a sustainable company that helps to make home composting easy and fun by offering turnkey home composting solutions and nurturing a community of composters with events and workshops,” she explained.

Sovan Srun / Edemy

Finding your passion is the first step towards realizing your dreams and Sovan Srun, co-founder and CEO of tech startup Edemy, got this step out of the way at a young age. A love of education led her and her friends to run youth camps during university focusing on leadership and the learning process, opening her eyes to the joys of education.

Srun’s love of science developed later on, when she read the biographies of innovators like Benjamin Franklin and Elon Musk. These figures, along with her discovery of science fiction, sparked insights about the exhilaration of education and her own personal need to share this excitement with the youth of Cambodia.

Understanding that the best solutions require cooperation, Edemy brings together a diverse team with a broad range of expertise to develop technological solutions that “seamlessly combine learning with technology” with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The Tesdopi app allows students and teachers to track learning in real-time and see where individuals may need help or are excelling in order to optimize the learning process for everyone involved.

For us it’s about creating a technology that really has an impact on learning

Srun and her team are constantly testing new ways to encourage students to use technology to embrace education and overcome obstacles to discover the joy of learning. 

“For us, it’s about creating a technology that really has an impact on learning. The journey can be both exhausting and exhilarating at times but overall it is a meaningful experience for everyone at Edemy,” she concluded.

Narath Chheav / Decathlon Cambodia

“Do what makes you happy and live your life with meaning.” This idea is at the heart of Narath Chheav’s philosophy, but this isn’t to say that the 35-year-old isn’t serious about business. Over the course of ten years with the French sporting-goods firm Decathlon, Narath moved through every position in the Production & Export Unit and played an instrumental role in ensuring the quality of goods produced in Cambodia met the company’s strict standards. 

This time spent on factory floors helped Narath gain valuable experience with international supply chains and his roles as the head of the Production & Export Unit and Leader of HR for Decathlon Cambodia allowed him to recruit new team members and guide them on their path with the company, sharing his personal experiences and offering valuable advice.

While he has recently parted ways with the company to explore the next chapter of his life, Narath’s experience and vision continue to pay off for the company. At his urging, Decathlon opened retail operations in Cambodia, a decision that has proven successful as sales remain strong despite the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Follow your passion. Happiness and profit will be a consequence of your passion

Between Decathlon and lecturing at the Royal University of Law and Economics, where he earned his bachelor’s degree before completing his master’s in France, Narath still finds time to make his presence felt in other areas of Cambodia’s business world. In September 2020, he became the youngest board member of EuroCham and was soon selected as the Chairman of the Human Resources Committee. He also volunteers as a mentor for the Phnom Penh SA-AT Project, an educational campaign that aims to promote behavioral changes toward waste management in Cambodia.

Throughout all of his endeavors, his belief that living with meaning and loving what he does is the foundation of Narath’s life. As he tells his students at the Royal University, “Don’t pursue happiness. Follow your passion. Live your life meaningfully and find a way to bring it to people around you. Happiness and profit will be a consequence of your passion.”

Soreasmey Ke Bin / Confluences Incubator

Born and raised in France, the 43-year-old Soreasmey  Ke Bin arrived in Cambodia in 2001, hit the ground running and by 2002 had launched his first startup in the Kingdom, an IT engineering company that is still operating today. 

In 2015 he started Confluences, a consulting firm, logistics provider, and platform linking entrepreneurs through coworking spaces and unique incubation services. As Managing Partner, Soreasmey thinks of Confluences as a one-stop solution provider for anyone interested in exciting business opportunities in Cambodia. He explained his vision, “Confluences is the natural gateway to the Kingdom of Cambodia and Southeast Asia for entrepreneurs and corporations from all around the world.”

We want to help our clients and partners, and society as a whole, achieve their business and economic goals by being part of this growth

Starting Confluences on a shoestring budget, Soreasmey has overcome the obstacles that many entrepreneurs experience in Cambodia, however, he believes this makes him uniquely qualified to provide guidance and insights about business in Cambodia and the region.

The president of the French Cambodian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFC), Soreasmey is optimistic about the future, “We see the potential in Cambodia and its growth. We want to help our clients and partners, and society as a whole, achieve their business and economic goals by being part of this growth.”

Krasna Cham / Soma Group 

Cambodia is a country full of opportunities, and Soma Group is a collection of enterprises spanning a breadth of industries that relies on next level coordination in order to remain viable in the fast-changing business environment. At the heart of this cooperation is 35-year-old CEO, Krasna Cham. 

Working her way up through the organization’s ranks, Krasna started at Soma Group in 2008, filling the role of marketing manager for the agriculture division of the brand’s operations. On the path to her current position, Krasna gained valuable experience in a number of industries which has proven essential to her success with Soma Group.

“The group of companies operate in varying sectors and I need to have the ability to switch caps for multiple topics, industries, and scope throughout each day,” Krasna said, emphasizing the knowledge and versatility required of her on a daily basis.

We incorporate sustainability into our vision, in an attempt to address both social and environmental impacts across multiple generations

Not content to simply facilitate other people’s success, Krasna also has her own franchises that vary from a women’s footwear outlet to a seafood restaurant, as well as a real estate project in development. 

Speaking about what sets Soma apart from other Cambodian conglomerates, she cited Soma Group’s investment in essential infrastructure and education. Krasna continued, explaining the group’s big-picture goals in the country. “We are contributing to development through important, impactful industries that not only provide benefits for our shareholders but for all stakeholders. We incorporate sustainability into our vision, in an attempt to address both social and environmental impacts across multiple generations.” 

Ratana Phurik-Callebaut / Cambodia expert

There is no shortage of dynamic individuals in Cambodia’s investment landscape, however, in terms of sheer scope of influence, Ratana Phurik-Callebaut stands out. Born and raised in France, the 48-year-old left a comfortable position in Switzerland’s private banking sector to return to her native country. “As soon as I arrived, I felt I was finally home,” she said of the strange but heartwarming experience.

17 years later and Ratana has positioned herself as a highly respected consultant, advising some of the most notable international organizations in the Kingdom. Beyond her work with the UNDP and GIZ, Ratana shares her expertise with entrepreneurs and startups. 

In Cambodia, nothing is easy but everything is possible

 “My contribution to the SME and startup ecosystem is something that I find very rewarding and promoting excellence, even at my limited level, is always fulfilling,” she said.

The knowledge that she has accumulated over the course of nearly two decades in the country makes her advice highly valuable for those looking to enter the market. Speaking of doing business in the Kingdom, Ratana continued, “The motto I like to repeat is ‘In Cambodia, nothing is easy but everything is possible.’”

From her tenure as the Executive Director of EuroCham, to her work with international development organizations, Ratana is continously inspired by the potential that the Kingdom holds. “My journey now, is to demonstrate to the world that Cambodia is a country full of opportunities. Cambodia today is about youth, dynamism, growth and a tremendous eagerness to move forward.”

Hok Kang / Urbanland 

In the last ten years, Phnom Penh has seen an explosion of development, driven by international investment and shaped by a new generation of Cambodian architects. Co-founder and Managing Director of Phnom Penh’s Urbanland, 37-year-old Hok Kang is one of the figures working to transform the capital into a sustainable, inclusive, and modern city.

Inspired by a trip to Singapore in the 1990s, Hok was struck by the meticulous and intentional design of the city. “It was the first time I encountered an environment which felt like it was designed holistically, with beautiful parks, well-manicured streets, and modern architecture,” he said.

This formative experience continued to shape Hok’s path, piquing his interest in design and sending him on an architectural journey that has taken him to the United States, Denmark, and Japan before finally settling back in Phnom Penh. 

Beginning in 2009 with the launch of HKA & Partners, Hok sees his passion for design as more than just a desire to plan buildings. “I wanted to show people that architecture matters and can make an impact on people’s quality of life. As an architect, I believe in creating inspirational spaces for Cambodians,” he explained.

Hok’s inspired take on city planning led to the 2013 launch of Urbanland, which has since completed a number of projects in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap such as Embassy Central and the Treeline Urban Resort. However, more than any single project, Hok sees his greatest achievement as the sense of awe experienced by people when they enter one of his buildings.

Understanding the Cambodian context is crucial because whatever works overseas may not work here

“What gives me the most pleasure and happiness is if people come into our buildings and they just love it, and they don’t know what it is that they love. They can just feel that it is great,” he explained.

In terms of investment, Hok sees Cambodia as a distinct environment full of potential for those with an appreciation of the country and its people. “Understanding the Cambodian context is crucial because whatever works overseas may not work here.” 

However, he doesn’t view the uniqueness of his country as a detriment to investors looking to enter the market. “The situation here is fluid, full of opportunities worth exploring,” he concluded.

With a focus on the human experience of architecture, people are at the heart of Hok’s vision of Cambodia’s future. He elaborated, “If we are empathetic to people, understand them, their ambitions, we can build something in the long term which will impact and benefit how people live their lives.” 

This article was first published in Globe Media Asia’s Focus Cambodia 2021-22 magazine. 

The post Meet the top 10 young Cambodians shaping the Kingdom’s future appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

If you’d told Samai’s co-founder and director Antonio López de Haro that the current alcohol of choice would be sanitiser, he’d likely not have believed you. 

“Our goal for 2020 was to expand our production capacity significantly,” Antonio, co-founder and director of Samai Distillery, explained to Southeast Asia Globe. “We’ve been receiving requests for our rum from around the world and our priority is to increase our production capacity to answer those demands.”

While that goal still stands, the current state of play within the drinks industry would not be what Antonio would have envisioned. With Covid-19 pausing business around the world, the drinks industry has had to put on the brakes too. Or, at least, move the goalposts.

“Due to the situation, we started to take extra measures that had a lot of impact on our finances, such as closing the bar on Thursday night,” he said, referring to an open night his distillery used to hold. 

But it hasn’t been all bad news.

“Considering that our rums are aged for at least one year, increasing our production capacity will not have a direct impact – most of the result will be seen after two years,” explained Antonio, who exports to Singapore and Europe.

Like a number of distilleries, however, one new item alongside their rum has popped onto the menu as a response to the coronavirus, and one that you wouldn’t necessarily want to substitute into your Mojito – hand sanitiser.  

Left: Samai’s co-founder and director Antonio López de Haro. Photos: Supplied

Seeing how serious it got, and how hard it is to find hand sanitiser at a reasonable price, having all the equipment here to produce alcohol, it made sense for us to contribute

“It was just an idea to help with the current crisis, once we saw that supply was very tight,” Antonio said. “We sell it in small batches and almost at production cost, so we are not making this for profit, just to help the people in Phnom Penh as much as we can.”

Samai realised there was a lack of sanitiser and looked at how to help remedy that. 

“Seeing how serious it got, and how hard it is to find hand sanitiser at a reasonable price, having all the equipment here to produce alcohol, it made sense for us to contribute as much as we could to help our community,” said Antonio. 

With bottles of sanitiser ballooning in price, Samai wanted to produce an affordable one for locals. Before the pandemic, a 500ml would typically sell for $7 – that has now doubled. Samai sells theirs for the lowest price that still enables production to continue, while still remaining affordable – $3.50. Buyers can top up their reusable bottle at the distillery for a dollar. 

“We wish we could offer it for free but being a small distillery, we have to at least cover our costs,” Antonio explained. “So far they have been mostly sold at our shop to general customers, as well as given to our staff and some other organisations.”

It wasn’t difficult for Samai to quickly produce the sanitiser. Three kinds of alcohol are produced during the distilling process: the head, the heart and the tails. The heart is what’s used for Samai’s rum while the head – normally reserved for cleaning equipment – is produced as a normal byproduct and is now used for the sanitiser. 

“It’s actually a great way to recycle all the alcohol we’re not using in production,” explained Antonio.

But while Samai staff were able to quickly reconfigure the distillery to produce sanitiser, it is not all straightforward.

Sourcing plastic containers to bottle the sanitiser was problematic. “They’re limited, and suppliers are taking advantage of the rise in demand, therefore increasing the prices dramatically to the point where it makes it uneconomical to continue producing these products,” said Antonio. “The availability of raw ingredients is limited and very high in price.

But Samai is considering maintaining the production line even after the pandemic passes. While visitors won’t be seeing it on menus any time soon, the coronavirus has sparked a rethink in what can be done with alcohol’s supposed ‘scraps’. 

“It’s something we’ve been discussing with some local pharmacies to distribute it in the long term,” Antonio said.

The post Cambodian rum distillery puts hand sanitiser on the menu appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

He launched the quarterly literary magazine back in October 2015, flying in the face of the digital revolution that has been sweeping the media for the past two decades. Nearly four years on and the magazine, a collection of political features, interviews, arts reviews and poetry, has become a fixture on magazine stands across Southeast Asia. Malaysian writer Bernice Chauly once said of it, “there hasn’t been anything like this. Ever.”

Its success is not something Bui Jones imagined when starting out. 

“I launched it because I’m obsessed with print journalism,” he told Southeast Asia Globe via email, but added that he didn’t have high expectations. 

“You never go into these things with confidence, only fear. You go into them hoping to make it to the next issue and to come out in one piece.” 

But Bui Jones’ battle to survive in the new media landscape is far from the only frontier. Around the region, other publications are facing their own hardships. 

Perhaps no one epitomises that struggle more than Maria Ressa, the co-founder and CEO of Philippine news website Rappler. The publication began life as a Facebook page before evolving into a fully fledged news site in 2012. Since then, it has grown into one of the most influential news outlets in the country. 

But now Rappler is contesting 11 legal disputes as the Philippine government, headed by President Rodrigo Duterte, steps up pressure on media critical of his administration. Ressa herself is involved in ten of those cases, and between February and March this year was arrested twice in a five-week period. She told Southeast Asia Globe that she believed she was being targeted simply for doing her job.

“I think it’s because we continue to challenge impunity,” she said.

Ressa said that the “government tries to make it seem like we’re against something”, but said that her approach to reporting has always been the same – and that won’t change now.

“Since I began reporting in 1986, I’ve worked the same way with the same standards and ethics in all the different countries in Southeast Asia,” she said. “And you know, when it matters, that’s not the time when you should buckle or change.”

The Philippines is not the only country in the region where press freedom is under threat. 

Out of the 180 countries surveyed in Reporters Without Borders’ 2019 press freedom index, Timor-Leste was the only Southeast Asian country to make it into the top 100. Other countries in the region found themselves racing towards the bottom of the pile, with Vietnam the worst ranked at 176. 

As far as the media is concerned, Ressa said, we’re living through a time of “creative destruction”. 

But while press freedom has become more prominent in international coverage recently, Kirsten Han, editor-in-chief of online publication New Naratif, said that repression was nothing new to the region.

“[Press freedom] is going downhill, but I don’t think Southeast Asia was ever doing particularly well as a region,” she said. She gave the example of Singapore, saying that a lack of press freedom has been a “long-standing problem” in the city-state.

And although Bui Jones stated his concern about the media being targeted, he also warned against over-sensationalising the issue. 

“I feel when we talk about the state of our profession we need to be cold and precise about it or else we’ll succumb to navel-gazing and self-pity,” he said.

Ressa has a similar belief, saying that we shouldn’t always concentrate on the negatives. 

“Often we do the story when we say, you know, it’s really bad,” she said. “And it is really bad. But I think we also have to do the rallying cry if it’s really bad, if it’s being destroyed. What are we going to create in its place?”

It’s a question that Splice Beta, Asia’s first-ever media startup festival, has been trying to answer.

Hosted in Chiang Mai in May this year, the three-day event was hosted by Splice Media, a Singapore-based startup working to transform media in Asia. On its website, it describes itself as the “Nieman Lab of Asia (without the funding)”. 

“I cringe when people use the label ‘independent media’ liberally”

Alan Soon, Splice Media

The summit brought together journalists, publishers, researchers and academics in the media field for a series of talks and masterclasses. 

“We wanted to demonstrate that there’s a community of media startups to celebrate, and also to offer a different framing to the often pessimistic view of media today,” said Alan Soon, co-founder of Splice Media.

His use of the term media startups is purposeful. For Soon, the phrase refers to “a nimble, digital-focused organisation involved in creation of content, or the tools that enable its creation, distribution, and amplification”.

These organisations are often described as independent media publications, but Soon dislikes the term. 

“I cringe when people use the label ‘independent media’ liberally because it doesn’t actually say what they’re independent from. Is it government money? Is it business interests?” he said. 

He offered a different suggestion. 

“Let’s try and coin a new label here. Let’s call [these publications] ‘interest transparent’. New Naratif is at the forefront of this thinking.” 

New Naratif was launched in 2017 to fill a gap in the market, aiming to provide unbiased and in-depth coverage of stories passed over by big international media outlets. 

One of its principle values is transparency. 

Every six months, New Naratif publishes a report on its finances, reader engagement and future goals. Han said that this openness is a way of building trust with their readers. 

“Across the board in Singapore there is not enough transparency anyway, so [being transparent is] one thing you can do to show people that you take [trust] seriously and that it does matter,” she said. 

She said that at New Naratif, they don’t view themselves strictly as media but instead as a “sort of ‘vertically integrated’ movement.” 

This is a part of their identity and push for community empowerment, which Han said is as vital as transparency to their approach. 

“It’s important for us at New Naratif that we are building communities instead of speaking down to people,” she said.

“One way to build trust is to have people feel like they actually have some sort of ownership and stake and say in how things are run and how decisions are made.”

But Rappler‘s Ressa said that there is one big obstacle to building that trust: social media. 

“We [all] fight for the facts, but the way social media has worked is, the lies spread faster than the facts,” she said.

“If you don’t have facts, you can’t have truth, and if you don’t have truth, you don’t have trust.”

“To continue to rely on Facebook is nothing less than self-abuse”

Minh Bui Jones, the Mekong Review

She said that social media is the worst type of violence she has encountered –even worse than a war zone. 

“When you’re in a war zone, you know where the gunfire is coming from, you know where the violence is coming from,” she said. 

“On social media, it’s the air you breathe, you’re being manipulated and you don’t know you’re being manipulated.”

Bui Jones also criticised social media’s impact, saying it “encourages lazy journalism”.

“Far too many journalists spend far too much time in their favourite echo chambers scanning for stories and scandalous opinions… We also know that Facebook has been sucking our industry dry, so, as journalists, to continue to rely on it is nothing less than self-abuse,” he said. 

Ressa said that to tackle the issue, journalists must take on a new role. 

“These [social media] platforms should not allow impunity,” she said, and called for media publications to take on the responsibility of ending that unaccountability.

Rappler is one of three partners in the Philippines working with Facebook to try to prevent the spreading of misinformation.

“I think [the media] need to shine the light more on the internet age, how our data, how our activity online, how all of this is being collected, and how, ultimately, we can be manipulated, how our opinions can be shaped and how much more vigilant we have to be,” Ressa said.

Han was one of the speakers at the Splice Beta event, where she was joined by other pioneers in Asia’s media startup scene such as Sonny Swe, the founder and CEO of English-language weekly Frontier Myanmar, Devi Asmarani, founder and editor-in-chief of Indonesian woman-focused magazine Magdalene and Bui Jones of the Mekong Review. Each represented publications fighting to thrive in today’s difficult market.

New Naratif is experimenting with a paywall-protected membership model, while Frontier Myanmar has recently announced its goal of establishing a member-based platform that will allow it to keep its articles free to readers. Bui Jones’ Mekong Review sticks to the more traditional sales and advertising approach, which he recognised as being more of an anomaly today. But, he said, print media will always have a future.  

“The publications that [have] survived the internet disruption of the last two decades will emerge stronger than ever, as they will be the only ones left,” he said. 

Soon’s outlook of the future is equally positive, albeit in a different way. He sees media startups as the future, and said that they “were the best way to create alternate voices as well as options for consumers.” 

And despite acknowledging the multitude of challenges that New Naratif and other media publications in the region face, Han is similarly sanguine.

“I think there’s also huge potential in Southeast Asia, because independent media is really needed to fill the gap between what local mainstream media might not be able to cover, and what the foreign press aren’t really interested in covering,” she said. “And who better to tell Southeast Asian stories than the people of Southeast Asia?”

For Ressa, the very fact that the region’s media is fighting for its life is what keeps her optimistic. 

“When you’re forged in fire the way we’ve had to be in the last year, the team, I think, comes out stronger.”

Correction: an earlier version of this article stated that New Naratif was based in Singapore. We would like to clarify that New Naratif does not operate out of Singapore and has no legal presence in the city-state. We’ve also clarified our description of the site’s revenue model.

The post Creative destruction appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Rithy Thul: Founder of SmallWorld Cambodia

Rithy Thul may best be described as a jack-of-all-trades in the realm of entrepreneurship and tech. A passionate leader in the Kingdom’s startup scene, Rithy has personally co-founded and assisted in the launch of half a dozen business ventures in the country, including tech startup Codingate, tourism company Toursanak Adventures and angel investor network Corco Angel.

In 2011, Rithy co-founded SmallWorld Cambodia, a professional co-working space where young entrepreneurs are encouraged to develop their ideas and which since 2017 has provided seed funding to early-stage team startups. Through the SmallWorld REDD Lab, Rithy spearheaded the design and production of Cambodia’s first homegrown laptop, which launched in late 2018.

With about a thousand laptops already sold in Cambodia, Rithy and his team have been testing the waters of regional markets for potential expansion to Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore.

Thul says: “Through SmallWorld, I have learned how to learn, how to lead, how to follow, how to fail, and especially how to trust my gut and deal with hardship,” Rithy said. “Of all I have done, this has been my biggest success”.

Loem Lida: Co-Founder of SHE Investments

Loem Lida is in the business of elevating businesswomen. As co-founder of SHE (Support Her Enterprise) Investments, a business incubator and accelerator programme, Lida’s goal is to promote economic growth in the Kingdom by equipping female business leaders with the tools they need to be successful.

While a majority of businesses in Cambodia are owned by women, female-led businesses account for only 2% of the Kingdom’s formal economy – and SHE Investments is set on changing this statistic.

Since launching in 2015, the programme has supported more than 250 women, with an average of 155% revenue growth for participants. With expansion plans in the works, Lida said that SHE will be operating in Siem Reap before the year’s end and will be working in an additional three provinces by the end of 2020.

Lida says: “The aim is to promote sustainable business growth… through increased revenue, job creation, and increased women’s confidence, decision-making power, and leadership roles. From 2019, SHE looks forward to expanding operations… to make their business support programs more accessible to hundreds more women annually.”

Em Chanrithykol: Founder of DoyDoy

During a year spent volunteering as a teacher in the provinces in 2015, a young Chanrithykol noticed a lack of hands-on educational materials in the school where he worked. As an undergraduate student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, he began developing the idea for an affordable learning tool that would eventually become DoyDoy.

In late 2016, Chanrithykol began a six-week course at local 3D-printing group ArcHub during which he created a working prototype for his product: a set of brightly coloured plastic straws and 3D-printed joints that could be connected, like building blocks, to form models and structures.

The educational game, DoyDoy, has proven popular among local students and schools, especially for teaching the STEM-related engineering skills that Chanrithykol believes will be crucial for future generations of Cambodians.

Chanrithykol says: “Our future plan is to create even better STEM learning activities through updated games, while still maintaining the fun.”

Penhleak Chan: Community Manager at Raintree Cambodia

For Penhleak Chan, instigating social change through the power of tech is not just a part of her job – it has served as a guiding principle in every project she has undertaken.

Her long list of past pursuits include coordination of hundreds of research briefings on Cambodia’s development through the Open Development Initiative; leadership of training programmes on effective data journalism and on data technologies for water resource governance; and organisation of several education and tech projects including TechCamps, Technovation, Smartstart and TRYBE Hackathon.

As the community manager for Raintree, Penhleak has conducted considerable research into the tech and startup sector, recently co-authoring a tech startup ecosystem report for use by potential investors and entrepreneurs.

Due to these accomplishments, Penhleak was granted the Cambodian Women in Tech Award in 2018. In her ongoing commitment to effective social programmes, Penhleak is excited to lead “Coding Cats”, a five-week education programme and Raintree’s latest initiative.

Penhleak says: “Kids will invent the future – why not start now? We cannot teach our kids everything they need to know about the world, but if we can teach them to be curious and self-motivated learners, then our job is done.”

Richard Yim: Co-Founder and CEO of Demine Robotics

Cambodia remains one of the most heavily landmine-affected countries in the world, with an estimated 10 million landmines still buried on Cambodian land; dozens of locals are injured or lose their lives every year as a result of these long-buried explosives.

For 25-year-old Cambodian engineer Richard Yim, the solution to the Kingdom’s ongoing plight lies in well-built robotics, which can quickly and effectively remove mines without the fear of loss of life.

Richard began to develop a robot capable of mine removal in 2015, teaming up with fellow engineers to form the startup “Landmine Boys”, which would later become Demine Robotics.

In its current form, the startup’s “Jevit” robot is about the size of a ride-on lawn mower and can quickly unearth mines buried three to five centimetres beneath the earth, allowing the mine to be safely detonated or defused once excavated.

Yim, who was recently listed on Forbes’ 30 under 30 Asia 2019 list, intends to grow his startup, sending Jevit robots into the field to unearth mines worldwide.

Yim says: “This is for the country, this is for the world, this is for those countries that still have landmines, and the thousands of people who suffer because of landmines, and the millions more who are… denied the ability to take part in agricultural activities because of landmines.”

Pong Limsan: Founder of First Womentech Asia and visionary behind Peth Yoeung Hospital Software

Pong Limsan is not new to the world of tech: she began blazing a trail for female tech leaders with the founding of her software development company, First Womentech Asia (FWTA), in May 2013.

With a female-oriented Cambodian team of software developers and coding staff, FWTA started out as an IT software provider for the hospital sector and, under Limsan’s leadership as CEO, began developing its own unique software in 2015. Created from scratch, FWTA’s “Peth Yoeung” software was developed as a web-based medical record and operating management system for hospitals and clinics.

The system has to date been installed in 99 private hospitals, clinics, dental clinics, pharmacies and laboratories across nine provinces in the Kingdom, with business picking up as more and more healthcare service providers turn to digital solutions.

Limsan says: “Going digital is a global trend. If any business does not apply digital solutions, they will lose their competitiveness in the global market.”

Mov Kunthear: Co-Founder and Managing Director of Dorsu

Mov Kunthear began her working life in one of Cambodia’s many garment factories, earning minimum wage for long days of tiring work. Her job allowed her to realise that she enjoyed working in fashion – but that mass manufacturing of cheap clothing often had more downsides than up.

With just a sewing machine and $200 in savings, Kunthear quit her job, partnered up with fellow entrepreneur Hanna Guy, and founded an ethical fashion business in Kampot province in 2006. The company, Dorsu, has since expanded to two premises, developed a strong reputation in both Cambodia and Australia, and has had stock shipped to stores around the world.

Now an accomplished clothing designer, production leader and brand ambassador, Kunthear was recently granted the “Social Entrepreneur” award at the second annual Women of the Future Awards Southeast Asia event in Singapore.

Kunthear says: “I am proud to be a voice in Cambodia about how business can be led with integrity and kindness. I think, if people act from what they believe in and with love, anyone can overcome anything. It’s just about believing in yourself and trying with everything you’ve got.”

Sokneang Nodzak: CEO and Co-Founder of Kokopon

Even before she had founded her own company, Sokneang Nodzak thought of herself as an entrepreneur. Armed with a computer science background, she worked multiple jobs in programming – all the while brainstorming ideas for her own business.

In mid-2017, she took the plunge and began developing Kokopon, a discount website for local businesses. After months of website development, marketing, and participating in a training programme run by business incubator SHE Investments, Sokneang launched her website at the start of 2019. The first four months of operations have been busy: Kokopon has offered sales on over 1,000 items from 15 merchants, registered with Pi Pay to accept digital payments, and begun offering sales through Facebook messenger.

Kokopon was founded on the idea of promoting women in tech, Sokneang added: the site promotes goods from female-owned businesses, female interns work to support the site on the backend, and the company is in the process of setting up a scholarship fund for women who study engineering.

Nodzak says: “I want Kokopon to bring happiness to Cambodians and to local businesses, to allow people to explore, experience and enjoy. We want to be the first and the biggest platform, where people can find out about new deals, coupons and promotions across town.”

Phatry Derek Pan: Founder of Khmerican

At the age of four, Phatry Derek Pan fled Cambodia with his family, seeking refuge in the US at a time of instability in the Kingdom. Growing up as a Cambodian-American – or “Khmerican” – he realised that there was a lack of news about his fellow Cambodians in the country.

In 2011, he chose to launch a publication that would highlight the success of Cambodian-Americans across the US – entrepreneurs, entertainers and community leaders – and promote the preservation of Cambodian culture. The website, appropriately named Khmerican, has over the past seven years expanded its readership exponentially to reach more than 3 million readers each month.

Derek is now expanding the venture to Australia, where the Melbourne-based publication will be called “Khmeroo”, and has term plans to open a third branch in Paris – called “Khmeropean” – by the end of 2020.

Derek says: “I cannot possibly share with you the power of the feeling. The feeling when parents tell us that because of Khmerican, their kids have Khmer-American role models that they can look up to.”

Leakhena Long: Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Joonaak Delivery

In 2015, Leakhena Long wanted to start up a business – she just didn’t know what type. Analysing the Cambodian market, she noticed a growing trend in e-commerce that was hindered by a general lack of delivery services. Joonaak, which offers reliable delivery and storage services for nonperishable goods, was established soon thereafter.

Within two years of operations, Joonaak has become one of three startups to receive investment funding from the $5 million Smart Axiata Digital Fund, and in April 2019 became one of only a dozen finalists in the Seedstars Global Summit competition in Switzerland. Leakhena said her company’s focus still remains on improving the technology and streamlining the Joonaak app before expanding to other countries

Leakhena says: “We hope to continue providing hassle-free deliveries while supporting local businesses each step of the way. This includes, but is not limited to, focusing on our e-commerce solutions, quality customer support, and full service coverage in the region.”

8 TO KNOW

New to the Kingdom? Here are eight must-know names for international investors looking to make a splash in Cambodia’s thriving world of business

In Channy

President and CEO of Acleda Bank

As chairman of the Association of Banks in Cambodia, In Channy has been instrumental in promoting access to financial services through innovations such as the pioneering Unity ToanChet banking app which launched in 2017.

Lim Chhiv Ho

Chairman of the Phnom Penh Special
Economic Zone (PPSEZ) 

Since purchasing the land and brokering construction of the 350+ hectare PPSEZ in 2006, Lim Chhiv Ho has made it her business to liase between the government and potential foreign investors to usher over 70 international companies into the PPSEZ. 

Hok Kang

Founder of UrbanLand and Hok Kang Architects 

If you’ve stepped inside a Brown Coffee or boutique office space Raintree, you’ve experienced architect Hok Kang’s iconic design. His latest projects includeSiem Reap luxury hotel Treeline, and the Embassy Central condominium in Phnom Penh. 

Luu Meng

CEO of Almond Group; Co-Founder
of Thalias Hospitality 

Luu Meng has risen to the top of the country’s burgeoning hospitality industry. With a seat at the table of the ASEAN Hotel Association and Cambodia’s Tourism Federation, Meng plays an essential role in the Kingdom’s flourishing service sector.

Kith Meng

Chairman of Royal Group

Best known for entering Cambodian companies into joint ventures with global players to bring world-class services in telecoms, media and banking to the Kingdom, Kith Meng’s position as the head of business behemoth Royal Group has made him one of the iconic faces of the Cambodian business community.

Rithy Sear

Chairman of the Worldbridge Group 

Perceived as a “gateway” to the Kingdom, Rithy Sear has brought many foreign investors into Cambodia, most notably Singapore property-development group Oxley Holdings and global security company Brink’s, with whom Worldbridge signed a joint-venture agreement in July 2018. 

Chea Serey

Director-General of the National Bank of Cambodia 

Chea Serey has led a number of initiatives to increase financial inclusion, including a regulatory framework which enabled microfinance institutions and payment service providers to thrive. Serey also campaign to promote financial literacy, since included in the national curriculum.

Chy Sila

CEO of Sabay Digital Corporation 

Chy Sila’s bold gamble to establish Sabay in 2007 internet-shy Cambodia paid off – today, the digital media powerhouse produces online games and movies as well as owning a range of websites and cinemas. Sila’s philosophy towards doing business is simple: only those prepared to take risks stand to win.

The post Cambodia’s rising stars appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

According to Fortune, $85 billion in venture capital was invested in startups in 2017, but only 2% of that was invested in companies founded or run by women. If money is opportunistic, why doesn’t it automatically flow towards success?

Because decisions made about the use of money are never black and white. And those who control where the money goes are still subject to the law of familiarity, at least when we talk about venture capital. Unfortunately, not all venture decisions are made based only on statistics. Otherwise investors would always favour diverse teams. Studies show that such teams are more successful and generate around 50% higher revenues.

But investors want to see returns. How is it possible that this investment gap exists at all?

A key underlying issue is the unconscious bias we each naturally have. When a venture fund invests in a company at a very early stage, even without any proven repeatable revenue, what do they invest in? They invest in the judgment of the founder’s track record and potential success – and yes, the law of familiarity means that an old white man might back a younger white male entrepreneur who reminds him of himself when he was an entrepreneur, who may have accessed him through a Harvard old boys network or so. This means that by looking different, we may not fit the bill of a safe bet.

What exactly is your goal regarding TBDF?

We are determined to ensure that in the next few years, at least an additional $1 billion is invested in startups founded or run by women. There is a lot of talk about the gender pay gap, but not enough about the gender investment gap. The cake is big enough for us all to have a bigger slice.

How is that going to work?

We’re not a separate fund, but a consortium of funds: We rally venture capital funds to pledge to invest a certain amount in women-founded companies. Our ultimate goal is to mobilise a larger pool of capital within the existing framework of funds, to support the continued capacity to invest in women-founded companies. We talk not only to US investors, but also to decision-makers across the globe, from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is about a major problem that requires a major solution.

You started the project in October. How many supporters do you have on board at this point?

We were overwhelmed by the response! Our initial goal was to obtain pledges of $100m to be invested into women-founded companies through 2020. To date, we have reached more than $650m, pledged by 30 funds. I am confident that we will soon crack $1 billion.

But so far, these are mainly voluntary commitments on paper. Who checks whether the investments are actually being made?

That’s our job. There may be instances where a pledge is not fulfilled completely, but even if a part of the promised capital is invested in women’s visions of the future, I think we are off to a good start.

One billion dollars is rather limited given the sums currently being distributed in the tech industry.

Actually, that’s not true. In light of the fact that companies founded solely by women in 2017 raised only $1.9 billion in venture capital in the US, an additional $1 billion would have a huge impact.

Women are often regarded as founders with a mission. That sounds good and nice, but none of the big funds are there to save the world. Their priority is to make good money.

There’s some truth to that. Facebook was founded because Marc Zuckerberg wanted to learn more about others in his university, and of course in the Hollywood-stylised version of the story, it was a tool to find the coolest girls. And there are also women who found the 10th shopping app that the world doesn’t need.

Startups are successful when they want to solve a problem that affects many people…

Exactly. And women often start businesses that solve women’s problems. Sometimes men simply don’t understand that these problems exist. A disproportionately high number of ventures with a social impact seem to be founded by women.

Can you give an example?

Shelly Porges, one of my co-founders and a managing partner of TBDF, supports a female founder who provides coworking offices with licensed childcare. The quality of childcare is a major issue in the US, especially for working mothers. Coworking places are in high demand right now. Many providers lure their customers with additional offers such as fitness studios or shirt service. However, most women are not interested in such things. They can only use the space if they know that their children are well looked after. I see great potential in this.

A man could also have thought of that.

But again, entrepreneurs are inspired by their experiences. The hard revelation of the example above is that the lion’s share of domestic responsibilities today still fall upon a woman, and therefore, in this case, a woman thought of it because it was her experience. Or think of women’s health. That’s a billion-dollar market. Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, yet only one in three participants in cardiovascular research trials is a woman. The symptoms women experience, shortness of breath and jaw pain, typically aren’t the ones people watch for. That’s why Alicia Chong Rodriguez designed a bra with built-in sensors that collects data from the heart, analyses it for irregularities, and funnels vital information to a doctor.

You have only been living in the US for a year. Before that, you worked for a venture capital fund in Malaysia. Couldn’t you have made sure that more money went to female founders back then?

Looking back, I realise how conservative many of our decisions were. The nuances of decision-making as a young executive in a conservative Asian conglomerate is certainly difficult, and I take a self-critical view of this.

Why do you think that was?

Because it’s simply not the norm to experience women in management positions. I was mostly the minority in every meeting: young, female and a non-Muslim in a Muslim-majority country like Malaysia. There are sectors, such as consumer goods, where women are seen more commonly in leading positions. But in the tech scene I work in, we’re simply not the norm. It’s a classic catch-22: We need more women leaders to show more women they can lead, and we need to show more women they can lead to get more women leaders. And every company always needs a courageous person to start with it.

Is it enough to support only women?

In the end, of course, it’s not just about gender or race. The most successful teams are diverse teams where people from different cultural or educational backgrounds work together. Different people look at problems differently. This is where the potential lies. Even corporations have understood this by now.

Do you have an example?

Let’s take a great brand we all know, Disney. In their films, the heroines of today are no longer just princesses with light-colored skin and long blond hair waiting for Prince Charming at the end of all adventures. The success of Frozen shows that sometimes you don’t need a prince, if you trust yourself and have a great sister.

There are a lot of clichés in the business world, for example that men are optimistic and fond of taking risks.

I would argue that women are instead risk-aware. And that usually pays off, especially with a startup. They often question themselves and their ideas much earlier and more critically than male founders do.

Nevertheless, men tend to have more success with pitches and earn more money on average.

Yes, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves. The problem doesn’t just start when I, as a female founder, stand in front of a round of investors. It starts from what led us to that stage. We should pay attention to how we educate our children, which qualities we promote. I myself have always been encouraged by my parents to be ambitious, and they have treated me no differently from my older brother. I was brought up to ask questions, even critical ones. But, of course, I quickly realised that this was not the average, that especially in many Asian families, girls grow up quite differently from boys.

That obviously helped you in your career.

Yes and no. Let’s be clear: Being an ambitious, assertive young woman can come at a cost.

Why?

I believe the likeability penalty for women is real. When she is more successful, she is seen to be less likeable compared to her male counterparts. And this does boil down to insecurity, especially where women in power are viewed with caution. This plays an important role, for example, in promotions. Do I, as a boss, support someone who toes the line, who doesn’t intend to become a threat to me? Or someone who questions my actions and thus challenges the status quo? But this is the only way for companies to make progress, with employees who also ask unpleasant but necessary questions for growth – of course, driven by the right intentions.

You are co-founder of the Lean In Malaysia initiative, which was inspired by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Isn’t Sandberg, who has been criticised for dealing with election manipulation via Facebook, an example of how women aren’t better managers per se?

I would never say that all women are going to be better managers. But I think it’s significant to examine how Sandberg is being attacked personally right now, and how “Lean In” is then put into question in the same sentence. My view is that “Lean In” has been misunderstood widely by critics. The fact that we have communities of women supporting each other to get into tangible leadership positions, that women are encouraged to work towards their ambitions – that should be seen as a positive and cannot be discounted despite Sandberg’s professional challenges.

By arguing that people should invest more in women, aren’t you implicitly saying that women are better managers?

Nobody in our group would be so presumptuous to say that investing in female founders will always pay off. We’re talking about high-risk bets on technology, the future, team personalities. But it is wise to build up a diversified portfolio in a very targeted manner. Data shows that investing in women-led companies and gender-diverse teams is good business.

© 2019 Spiegel Online Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate

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What does space tourism mean for Southeast Asian tourism?
We have our head office in Thailand, which is just perfect for this company because the country is a famous tourism destination worldwide. But, I think space tourism will not really affect the tourism in Southeast Asia, which caters more to the masses. Space tourism is expensive. Currently, only those who have the money and the passion to explore space can afford it. But in the future, we hope the service will be available to more people as reusable rockets become more common and will help lower the cost of flying to space.

You recently unveiled your own “futuristic and sleek” spacesuit. How does this item help get your company closer to your planned 2021 commercial space launch?
Travelling to space can be dangerous. In space, the temperature can be freezing cold and there is a risk of exposure to radiation. Therefore, before sending space tourists, we have to develop a spacesuit that can ensure their safety up there. The spacesuit will be initially worn by our space tourism clients, but we’re also thinking to make the spacesuit more advanced so future astronauts can use it. For this version of the spacesuit, we’re going to include features like a helmet visor with a head-up display, a touch-screen wrist display and an embedded exoskeleton for better mobility in space.

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