Rising Giants

Today on the show we have a very special guest to mark our 50th episode of Rising Giants. Kay Woo is the founder of MVLChain, TADA and Onion Mobility. TADA, which is powered by MVLChain, is Southeast Asia’s first blockchain-based zero-commission ride-hailing service having launched in Singapore and Cambodia. They closed a $5m Series A investment at the end of 2019 to further strengthen their posit...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the pleasure of interviewing Roxana Gheorghe - General Manager at TRIBE Hotel located in Phnom Penh! Roxana has had a successful career working within the hospitality industry, growing through the ranks where she is now leading operations of the first TRIBE hotel debut in Asia under the Accor Hospitality group.  This 260 room...

In this week's episode, we have the pleasure of hosting Jamie Raine - Co-Founder and CEO of Indriya and Director of Strategic Partnerships at Wildcats! Jamie was born in Indonesia and moved to Phnom Penh to pursue his career in the startup world which included going viral as a music artist and utilizing that opportunity to grow Indriya - a company which provides integrated technological solutions...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the huge pleasure of speaking with Sok Visal, Founder/Director/and Producer of KlapYaHandz and 802 Films. Visal has been recognized as playing a huge part in the rebirth of Cambodia’s music and film industries having many accomplishments on both as a music and film producer over the past 20 years, founding Cambodia's first Hip Hop,...

Today on the show, Chata joins us. Having grown up in Cambodia, as well as working and living abroad in the USA and Singapore, Chata returned to Cambodia in 2020, where she increasingly grew a passion for entrepreneurship. Chata co-founded Missy Fit in 2021, Cambodia's first women only gym, that aims to create a safe and enabling space for women to work on their fitness lifestyles under the slogan...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Buntongyi Nit, Founder and CEO of MeetDoctor. Dr. Tong is a young Cambodian doctor and entrepreneur who has inspired many and created MeetDoctor with the vision and goal of making healthcare accessible to everyone in Cambodia, from urban areas to the most remote locations in Cambodia, while also im...

Zoë Ng is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Raintree. Raintree is an award-winning creative workspace in Phnom Penh, co-founded by our guest Zoë NG and Cambodian architect Hok Kang. With its unique community-focused and design-conscious approach, they’ve become a hub for creatives, entrepreneurs, technologists, young people, and professionals to come together through events, programs, and inde...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rising Giants where we have the huge pleasure of speaking with Langda Chea, founder and CEO of Bookmebus - one of Cambodia's most successful tech startup ups. BookMeBus is an on-demand transportation platform connecting national destinations and international countries in the Mekong, enabling domestic and foreign travelers to purchase bus, ferry and taxi tick...

This week Parth joins us on RG. He runs Azaylla, which is one of the most recent startups in Cambodia to secure funding - from the VC impact firm Uberis Capital (see RG episode N.12 with Trisha of Uberis). Parth has been interested in agriculture from an early age, receiving an MS degree in Agricultural Economics from Universiti Putra Malaysia. He is originally from India and has been based out of...

To kickoff 2022 we have a very special guest on the podcast, Rotanak Ros, AKA Chef Nak! Chef Nak is Cambodia's first female celebrity chef whose mission is to celebrate, develop and preserve the art of Cambodian (Khmer cuisine) and bring its unique flavors and rich culinary culture to the world's stage. As a passionate cook, successful entrepreneur, healthy lifestyle advocate, loving wife and moth...

Welcome back to the 40th episode of Rising Giants with your hosts Max Thornton and Dom Kalousek. After stepping away for a few weeks to rest and reflect, they decided to release a 2021 year in review for Rising Giants. In the discussion, Max and Dom look back on the past year, talking about what it was like to start a podcast in a frontier market which has never had one before, the challenges face...

This week we welcome Hashim Alkaff onto Rising Giants. Hashim arrived in Cambodia in 2019 as the leader of Grab's business in the country as it went through a period of rapid growth in the market after working for the company in Singapore. In 2021 he took on a new challenge and began a role with Wing, where he is the Chief Business officer leading their new business unit 'Wing Mall', which is a q-...

We are welcoming Melanie from Impact Hub on the show this week. Melanie arrived in Cambodia in 2015 when the incubation and startup ecosystem was very nascent in Cambodia. Since then she has risen to lead Impact Hub in Cambodia, the oldest and most prolific startup incubator in the country, where she is currently the director of entrepreneurship and innovation.  What we dive into: -  Mel...

On this week's episode of Rising Giants we have the pleasure of speaking with Tania Unsworth, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Seekers Spirits - Cambodia's first premium gin distillery. Having previously worked in the hospitality industry in Europe and Cambodia before switching over to spirits, Tania co-founded Seekers with her husband Marco with a dream of producing small batch spirits inspire...

Today on the show we have Dr. Vireak Khloth Chea, who is the co-founder & CEO of PillTech, a certified pharmacist from California receiving his Doctor of Pharmacy from Pacific University Oregon School of Pharmacy. Pilltech is a digital marketplace connecting pharmaceutical suppliers to pharmacy owners in Cambodia. Pilltech is improving Cambodia's pharmaceutical distribution networks by creating a...

Today on the show we have Jitka Markova, who is one of the key operators in the incubation space in Cambodia, leading 500 Global's incubation efforts in the country. 500 Global is a venture capital firm with more than $1.8 billion in assets under management that invests early in founders building fast-growing technology companies. Jitka is part of 500's Ecosystems Team, overseeing ANGKOR 500 progr...

Thyda Thaung is the founder of Thaung Enterprise, running the largest salt farm in Cambodia both for domestic consumption and export, located in southern Cambodia, Kampot province. Thyda founded the enterprise to help bring together the local community and connect salt producers to local and international markets. Thyda is the winner of the 2018 Cambodia’s Young Women Entrepreneur Awards. She also...

This week we have Uon Pakthom, commonly known as Sai on the show. Sai is one of Cambodia's leading musicians, exploring the intersection between traditional Khmer music and modern sounds. He also has a passion for acting and has starred in and directed many Cambodian productions. In 2020, Sai embarked on a bold mission to raise a substantial amount of money for Angkor Hospital for Children. He did...

This week we welcome Celia to the show. Celia has long had a passion for impact-driven entrepreneurship having arrived in Cambodia in 2013, building SHE Investments from inception into the leading organization it is today; SHE works with female entrepreneurs through Cambodia's first gender and culturally tailored business incubator and accelerator programs to support them to scale their enterprise...

In today's episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Joey Ra. Joey is Cambodia's only Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and the Founder of Cambodia's Coaching Institute, the country's first professional coaching training program. Born in Korea and raised in the UK, he now works to nurture and grow coaching in Cambodia and beyond, serving as teacher and mentor to coaches in the region. In...

Sarita Reth joins us this week for a very special podcast episode. Sarita is currently Miss Universe Cambodia 2020, representing her country as Miss Universe for the fourth time Cambodia has successfully entered a contestant. Prior to this Sarita has had a distinguished career in the media & entertainment industry, having acted and/or produced in over ten films and TV shows. Furthermore, Sarit...

Welcome back to Rising Giants. Today we have our first Chinese businessman on the show, Jack Lee, talking about his journey as an entrepreneurial adventurer across Asia, landing in Cambodia and founding one of the leading e-commerce businesses in the country, Smile Shop. Jack has worked across Southeast Asia for over a decade, meticulously studying and perfecting how to do business in these evolvi...

This week we are interviewing Pablo Alonso Caprile. Pablo is the Group CFO at iCare Benefits, the leading buy-now-pay-later firm in Cambodia and Laos, having served over 300,000 customers. iCare looks to play a critical role in addressing financial inclusion by offering low-income women factory workers an interest-free option to purchase consumer goods and improve their lives, without the need for...

Today on the show we have Keertan Menon, a private equity investor, working for one of the leading players globally that operate in the key frontier markets of Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central Asia. Prior to getting involved in frontier market investing, Keertan worked for one of the leading software venture capitalists in Europe. Some of the key frontier markets he has interfaced with include...

Today on the show we have Saing. Saing is the Co-Founder of Selendra, Cambodia's first full-scale blockchain, which has been in development and prototyping since 2016. As Selendra now has opened its technology to the world and is beginning rolling out its mainnet over the next 6-12 months, Saing is taking the lead with technology development and expanding use cases. Saing is also the CEO of Bitrie...