Rising Giants Newsletter - N.19 Kim Tan-Am, Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Prudential (Cambodia)
Max & Dom chatting with the boldest and most inspiring entrepreneurs and investors in Cambodia 🇰🇭. Turn on 💡, tune in 📻, keep up 🚀
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In this weeks episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Kim Tan-Am, Chief Digital Strategy Officer at Prudential in Cambodia. Kim shares her remarkable journey moving to California at an early age from Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge. After graduating from Pepperdine and working at Wells Fargo, Kim returned to the Kingdom to join a microinsurance firm which led her to join Prudential in Cambodia as the Chief Digital Strategy Officer. In the episode, we cover the microinsurance sector in Cambodia, how these products work, the importance of education around insurance, and Kim’s perspective on how these product can be used to drive positive impact.
🧠 Want to learn more about Microinsurance?
A general introduction to the insurance and reinsurance markets in Cambodia
Cambodia’s insurance industry on a positive trend in 2020 amid COVID-19.
Insurance service expansion to aquaculture sector planned in Cambodia in 2021.
🎧 Find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Play, and Anchor!
📝 Venture Capital Deal Flow Highlights in Southeast Asia
CAMBODIA AQUISITION: We are excited to share that one of our previous guests Frédéric H. Proulx of Haystack Asia has acquired a 25% stake in Camboticket the foremost online travel-booking platform in the Mekong Region. Camboticket was founded in 2014 as the first online-only ticketing option for buses, ferries and taxis in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The company was launched behind a singular mission: To revolutionize Cambodia’s inefficient counter booking system and bring its booming travel into the new age of online booking. This acquisition is part of another strategic acquisition for Haystack Asia as they look to expand their footprint into Cambodia’s emerging tech and startup sector.
Indonesian healthcare startup Prixa has raised $3 million, bringing Prixa’s total raised to $4.5 million since it launched in 2019. The new funding will enable Prixa to scale its platform and customer base. Prixa uses a B2B model, partnering with healthcare payers like insurance providers and corporations. Through its B2B customers, it currently serves about 10 million patients. Prixa currently works with four major insurers and has six additional insurers in its short-term pipeline. It also works with Indonesia’s largest third-party administrators, allowing it to reach more policyholders.
Indonesia-based smart-city startup Qlue has raised an undisclosed amount from Japanese Telco KDDI last week. Aiming to help promote digital transformation in Southeast Asia, beginning from Indonesia, the startup offers a smart city platform using such technologies as internet of things and artificial intelligence to detect, analyze and solve problems in urban infrastructures in Indonesia. With this investment, KDDI plans to combine its technology solution and customer base in Southeast Asia with the Qlue platform .
Bangladeshi medicine delivery startup Arogga has secured $200K seed funding from new angel investors last week. Arogga plans to use these funds to significantly scale by investing in more tech talent and operational expansion. Since launching in December 2020, the startup has seen a 60% average month-on-month growth, proving there is significant demand in the market.
Bangladeshi mass-transit startup SHUTTLE raised $750K in a seed round, led by Accelerating Asia and a number of other investors. Shuttle provides the service in air-conditioned minivans, accommodating 10-11 people, who can safely commute together by paying less than one-fourth of ride-sharing cars. The company started its journey back in 2018 with a women-only service to solve a pressing issue in Bangladesh – the lack of safe transportation for women. The company has more than 20,000 women registered in their platform for the "Shuttle for Women'' service and has completed more than 1 million successful rides. Recently, the have extended their services to include “Shuttle for Business” for local corporates.
Philippine mobile healthcare startup Zennya raised $1.2M in funding led by 3 companies paving the way to nationwide expansion. The capital raised will be used to expand its services to all major Philippine cities. It is currently operating in Metro Manila and will launch in Cebu by June. Funds will also be used for talent acquisition, technology, and business development. Founded in 2016, Zennya provides home wellness and medical services like virtual doctor consultations and medical tests administered by professional nurses.
📰 Frontier Market Start-Up and Venture Capital News in Southeast Asia
🇰🇭 Cambodian startups hope to solve some of the big picture problems with new tech.
🇮🇩 Indonesia’s messaging app Line to launch a digital banking platform in Indonesia.
🇻🇳 Alibaba and Goldman want a piece of Vietnam’s online boom - here’s how.
🇧🇩 6 Bangladeshi startups looking to transform the trucking industry.
🇲🇲 The latest news on the coup in Myanmar.
🇵🇭 Startups that are taking advantage of Philippine labor cost competitiveness.
🇳🇵 Nepal government’s new budget looks to inspire “seed stage” investment and growth - but the startup community are skeptical.
📚 Knowledge Base: Entrepreneur and Investor Learning Resources
Video of the Week: How to Prepare Your Startup for Investment
In this week’s video, we present Jolyda Sou, Specialist in Financial Management and Investment from Phnom Penh’s Startup Grind in April of 2021. This video is a great resource for entrepreneurs and founders to gain intimate knowledge of preparing their startup to pitch for investors.
Additional Resources To Check Out:
🔍 Why community-led product development wins.
🎥 How to Apply Product Thinking to Build Online Communities.
🔨 How learning to ask can open doors (in business and life).
🔥 Crypto Talk: El Salvador is the first country to approve Bitcoin as legal tender.
👨🏼💻 Frontier Market Job Opportunities
Datapex is hiring for an Business and Research Analyst in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Clik Payment is hiring for multiple positions in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Prudential (Cambodia) Life Assurance is hiring for an Senior Supervisor, Investment Management in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sabay is hiring for multiple positions in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
UNICEF is hiring for an International Consultant, Communication in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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🧐 What is Rising Giants?
The Rising Giants Podcast was created in November 2020 by Max Thornton and Dominic Kalousek after realizing that there were a limited number of resources available for insight into the local startup and investor ecosystem in Southeast Asia.
Our mission is to talk to entrepreneurs and investors in the world’s most rapidly evolving frontier markets to help understand what it takes to have bold ideas and build the business disruptors of tomorrow. Through our personal exploration of these landscapes, we dive deep in our interviews with inspirational individuals learning about their career journeys, ideas, and insights into the markets of developing startup ecosystems, and expanding on why they see their business and the region as a "rising giant”.