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 the support of the CFA institute . She has incredible perspectives on her view of educating and retaining top talent within the finance industry in the country and a "glass half full" outlook on the Cambodia startup ecosystem and we really enjoyed this conversation from start to finish. 

We dive into:

- Ratana's early life leaving Cambodia from France and returning back in the early 2000's

- How she dove head first into Cambodia's finance sector and her experience launching the Cambodia Community of Investment Professionals in 2018

- Which investment sectors Ratana is most excited about and the future outlook of Cambodia's startup ecosystem

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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 create. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself. Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1." 

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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 Brixie - a digital real estate tokenization platform which aims to make real estate investment accessible for everyone around the world. 

In the episode, we dive into:

- Helicap's $15M investment into iCare Benefits and what it was like choosing the right investment partner

- An update on Brixie's recent seed stage raise and the status of the business's product rollout

- What advice Pablo would give to entrepreneurs looking to build a new business

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Rising Giants Newsletter - monthly Mekong region deal roundup and startup news.

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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. He is the Founder & Chairman of Urban Village, the largest Hong Kong-standard condominium project in Cambodia and Factory Phnom Penh, the biggest creative art hub in Southeast Asia, providing co-working space, art exhibition studios, catering & entertainment services and more. Currently, there are over 100 startups and 300 artists that work with The Factory. He is also a CFO of Goldfame Group, a multinational conglomerate and a leading global top five knitwear manufacturer. Goldfame has been the largest factory operator in Cambodia since 1996, producing for major brands such as Zara, Uniqlo, Marks & Spencer, Superdry, C&A, etc. To date, the Group has invested in various sectors, including garment, forestry, insurance, printing, microfinance, furniture and real estate. 

In the episode, we dive into: 

- Dr. Ben's current business involvements and how he moved into the tech/entrepreneurship space  

- The genesis of founding of Urban Village & Factory Phnom Penh and how he is creating a high impact space for startups and creatives 

- Which sectors Dr. Ben is most excited about for new investment in Cambodia

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Rising Giants Newsletter - monthly Mekong region deal roundup and startup news.

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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 Technology and Innovation. Richard is also leading the charge of electrification in Cambodia - through battery storage, electric vehicles, and renewable energy - and how he is focusing on strategies to retain top talent in Cambodia through creating job opportunities at Quantum. 

On the episode we dive into:

- Richard's journey as an entrepreneur from flipping stickers in the classroom at age 7 to attending Waterloo and Founding Demine Robotics

- The importance of retaining great talent in Cambodia in the fields of STEM and Science; and Richards strategy to do so through founding Quantum Engineering and providing opportunities for young talent in these fields

- Richard's view on how Cambodia will be able to reach upper-middle income status by 2030 and the push for electrification in the country 

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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 and 10+ hostels all over the region: Laos, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Australia. Further to this, the group was able to weather the pandemic and secure $4.6m in private equity investment in March 2022, marking a foundational point for its next period of growth. 

What we get into in the podcast:

- The origin story of Mad Monkey: the meeting of the cofounders by chance in Phnom Penh a decade ago

- Mad Monkey’s unique approach to 21st century Gen Z travel: “Explore with a purpose, Travel deeper, Live fully, Go Mad!”

- Perspectives for how the hostel travel sector will lead the rebound in international travel in post-pandemic Asia

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Rising Giants Newsletter - monthly Mekong region deal roundup and startup news.

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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 induction stoves. 👨🏽‍🌾🧑🏽‍🍳

- How Ben was able to lean into the challenges of building a startup in frontier markets during a time when survival was "week to week", especially in the early days. 

- Finding product market fit and how he scaled his startup to other countries within the region.

- Raising early stage capital in a frontier market and Ben's experience of navigation the fundraising waters.

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Rising Giants Newsletter - monthly Mekong region deal roundup and startup news.

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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 rounds in Cambodian history. 

In the episode, we dive into:

- How Vichet's serial entrepreneur career started with Little Digital (L192.com) and how that led to founding Khmerload - one of Cambodia's most successful digital media companies.

- Key lessons learned speaking with investors and his playbook of successfully scaling Mediaload and Groupin across Southeast Asia.

- What Vichet looks for in successful founders and how Groupin Corp, a leading startup in Cambodia in terms of funding, is launching Dream Team Startup Program - a startup incubation program intended to produce the next promising startup founders.

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Rising Giants Newsletter - monthly Mekong region deal roundup and startup news.

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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 (one of Myanmar's largest private banks), where he served as CEO until 2019. In his time at Yoma he also co-founded Wave Money (JV between Yoma Bank and Telenor), which is Myanmar's largest payment network for mobile transactions. 

What we get into in the episode:

- Hal's original spark for wanting to get engaged with investment in Southeast Asia and the impetus for Myanmar

- His experience co-founding and leading two market leading firms in payments and private equity investment

- How the investment/entrepreneurial landscape looks like in Myanmar looks today and expectations the years ahead

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Rising Giants Newsletter - monthly Mekong region deal roundup and startup news.

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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 perspective on which sectors she's most excited about over the next couple years.

In the episode, we dive into:

- Jolyda's career journey and what she has learned becoming an investment professional within the frontier market space

- The importance of financial management and what Cambodian startups can do to implement good practices

- What Cambodian startups can do to better prepare for raising capital and the importance of networking

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Rising Giants Newsletter - bi-weekly Mekong region deal roundup and startup news.

Rising Giants Instagram - where we keep you engaged on the daily!