Rising Giants

Welcome back to our 75th episode with Bill Chea. He is an entrepreneur and community builder, having been involved with bringing initiatives such as TEDx, Ignite, and Startup Grind to Cambodia. Always having been an entrepreneur since high school, we love this episode as we dive into his experiences creating these communities and helping launch the startup scene in the country. Among other things,...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we welcome Joshua Jones, CEO of Three Corner Coffee, a social enterprise, which aims to produce and promote 100% Cambodian coffee products with international standards of hygiene and quality, giving Cambodians the ability to compete in today’s and tomorrow’s global economy. Three Corner Coffee Roaster currently sources its Cambodian Robust...

On this week's episode we have the pleasure of speaking with Allen Dodgson Tan, who recently released one of the most up to date and fascinating guidebooks on how to understand Cambodia in the 2020's, as a foreign entrepreneur, investor or manager; Essential Cambodia. Allen is an executive leader in Cambodia with deep experience setting up new companies, organizations and initiatives (e.g. WorldBr...

This week we are welcoming Cheryl back on Rising Giants now she has taken on a new role in the impact investing and venture building space joining the team at Platform Impact.  Platform Impact provides organizations with strategy and management advisory services to plan, set up, launch and implement their own Impact Driven Enterprises in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. This is done through creat...

Rising Giants moderated a panel at ANGKOR 500 Turn Up 'What Do Investors Look For In A Startup?' on December 2, 2022 at the American University of Phnom Penh.  - Moderator - Max Thornton, Co-Founder & Co-Host, Rising Giants - Panelist - Christophe Forsinetti, Founder & Chairman, OBOR Capital - Panelist - Vannarath Vicheth, Investment Director, OBOR Capital Event info: a one-day in-per...

Welcome back to this week's special episode where we have the pleasure of speaking with Laura Mam, Co-Founder & CEO of Baramey Production!  Laura was born in San Jose, California to Cambodian refugee parents where she grew up in a household of talented musicians and singers that influenced her passion for music. After graduating in 2008 from University of California, Berkley, she kick sta...

On this week's episode of Rising Giants, we have the pleasure of speaking with Chy Sila, Co-Founder and Director at Khmer Fresh Milk and CEO of Sabay Digital! In this round 2 interview, we talk with Sila about his recent study tour to one of the world’s leading tech startup centers Israel (with Rising Giants Langda Chea, Vireak Chea, and other Cambodian entrepreneurs) where they discussed the impo...

Tharoth Sam is joining today on Rising Giants to discuss her fascinating life story of becoming one of Cambodia's top martial artists and carving out a new role for woman in a sport that has traditionally been male-dominated.  What we dive into: - Tharoth's early struggles and tests to becoming Cambodia's first and now most well known female martial artist - Combining her love of martial arts...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the opportunity to host Jennifer Lin, CEO of Choice Accelerator in Phnom Penh. As one of the few commercial accelerators actively investing in Cambodia, Choice Accelerator strives to support entrepreneurs and startups in Cambodia through capital funding, customized and one-on-one mentorship sessions, strategic connection referrals,...

We are excited to have Vireak back on Rising Giants to discuss the recent growth of PillTech and it's latest funding round of $500k, just announced last week!  PillTech works to improve Cambodia’s pharmaceutical distribution networks by creating a platform to help improve medication safety and reducing counterfeit drug available in the market.  What we dive into this time:  - Vireak...

Today on Rising Giants we have the pleasure of chatting to Rottnak, the CEO of DreamTeam, Cambodia's first influencer focused marketing agency that provide marketing, talent management and production services, currently working with more than 100 influencers in Cambodia that generate more than 500 million views on Facebook and YouTube a month!  What we dive into:  - Why influencer focuse...

This week on Rising Giants we have Daneth Reasmey, she is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tenbox a recent startup in Cambodia that is looking to transform the B2B wholesale grocery space through the creation of an all-in-one ecommerce supply chain platform. The goal is to make product trading as easy as ordering your lunch and help store owners source anything they need in one place, by connecting brand...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the pleasure of speaking with VP of Technology and Innovation and Managing Director Sophanak Chhor of IG Venture. IG is currently one of the most active groups in the startup scene working with early stage ventures by providing resources to help scale the business through their venture building model alongside the capital invested...

On this week's episode of Rising Giants we have the pleasure of speaking with Vorleak Oun of Hospicare - Cambodia’s first at home health care business focused on providing the core services of nursing care, care assessments, home nursing procedures, home physiotherapy, and home medical services. Having started the business in 2019, Vorleak has her eyes set on growing Hospicare within Cambodia by p...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the opportunity to speak with Ratana Phurik-Callebaut, private sector and investment specialist in Cambodia. With over 20 years of experience in international trade and investment she has held many director positions most recently joining  ACLEDA Bank and for launching the Cambodia Community of Investment Professionals with th...

A special unique episode to mark our 60th release, we are reviewing the most recommended book so far on the podcast, Zero to One by Peter Thiel. We loved spending time to learn about these ideas that have had such a big impact on our guests, we hope you enjoy tuning into this! ZT1 blurb: "the great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to crea...

On this weeks episode of Rising Giants, we are excited to share our round 2 interview with previous guest Pablo Caprile. He has helped iCare Benefits recently raise a $15M impact facility from Singapore based investor HeliCap which is the largest raise to date by a non-bank Cambodian startup in the ecosystem. In addition, Pablo has been working on fundraising and rolling out the product launch for...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the huge pleasure of having Dr. Ben Li, Founder & Chairman of Urban Village & Factory Phnom Penh, on the show! Dr. Ben Li is one of Asia's most influential and youngest entrepreneurs with over 15 years of global business experience. Dr. Li studied law in the UK and he is also a Certified Chartered Accountant in Hong Kong. H...

On this week's episode of Rising Giants we have the pleasure of speaking with Richard Yim, Co-founder and CEO of Demine Robotics, a company that is building technology to clear landmines and IEDs. He is also the founder of Quantum Engineering and Manufacturing, was listed on Forbes 30 under 30, and among his other accomplishments sits on the advisory board for the National Council for Science Tech...

This week on the podcast we have Tom Edwards, the Co-Founder & Director of Mad Monkey Hostels. Tom left behind the life of investment banking in Liverpool, arriving in Cambodia in 2011 and soon after meeting his cofounders spontaneously and jumping into entrepreneurship by setting up the first Mad Monkey Hostel in Phnom Penh in 2012. Since then the company has opened 2 more hostels in Cambodia...

On this week's episode of Rising Giants, we have the pleasure of speaking with Ben Jeffreys from ATEC, one of Cambodia's most successful startups to have expanded into Southeast Asia. ATEC provides sustainable, affordable and accessible clean cooking products for all Base of Pyramid households through the sales of their two flagship on-grid and off-grid products, ATECBiodigester and eCook inductio...

On this week's episode of Rising Giants we have the pleasure of speaking with Vichet In - one of Cambodia's most successful entrepreneurs, having started local e-commerce site Little Digital, digital media company Mediaload, and now Groupin. Vichet has also led a successful expansion of his businesses into Myanmar (Myanmarload) and Malaysia (Groupin), while fundraising for one of the largest round...

Hal Bosher joins us this week, having had a fascinating career so far in the emerging market investment scene in Southeast Asia. Hal currently serves as the Board Director at Delta Capital Myanmar, the largest private equity fund for the country with $100m+ AUM. Prior to Delta, Hal worked with the IFC and World Bank, before having an opportunity to relocate to Myanmar and join Yoma Bank in 2012 (o...

On this week's episode of Rising Giants, we have Jolyda Sou on the show to talk about her journey and dive deep into the growing startup ecosystem in Cambodia. In this short conversation we cover a variety of topics related to Cambodian startups, such as financial management, preparing for investment readiness, criteria investors use when screening investment opportunities, and her overall perspec...

Welcome back to our newest episode of Rising Giants with a very special guest, Tomas Pokorny. Tomas has had a very successful career, personally taking on many different challenges early on starting as an aviation engineer, working in many diverse environments around the world, and ultimately landing in Cambodia founding his own ventures and becoming CEO of Pi-Pay - one of Cambodia's most successf...