Phnom Penh, (FN) November 7– Sok Sopheakmonkol, CEO and founder of startup company Codingate hauled three awards for its SokhaKrom app at the Cambodia Rice Bowl Startup Awards for Best Startup of the Year, Founder of the Year and Best Life Sciences / Medtech Startup.

SokhaKrom is an all-in-one participatory healthcare platform that includes a mobile application, website, facebook and a Patient Relationship Management system. With its geolocation features, locating medical professionals and health services are made faster and easier.

The Rice Bowl Startup Awards is a regional award that celebrates the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in the startup ecosystem across the ten ASEAN countries. It’s mission is to mobilize a thriving startup community that provides sustainable, home-grown solutions for local issues that can be scalable regionally.

ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards project director Rubi-Ain Dahlan said that the winners were evaluated on three broad areas, specifically growth (actual and potential), impact and scalability.

“With the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards being the official Southeast Asia circuit for the Global Startup Awards, the brand “Rice Bowl’ has now become synonymous with being a respected platform for locally-grown startup heroes to be given the opportunity for market access, funding and media exposure,” she said.

Another big winner is DoyDoy, who won Best Newcomer and Best Social Impact Startup awards. DoyDoy is a startup that provides children with affordable, educational toys that improves STEM skills, creativity and brain development.

Other Cambodian startups who were recognised at the national circuit level included Best Smart City Solution Startup - Cdev Tec; Best E-Commerce / Supply Chain Startup - Tesjor, that helps people find food stores and restaurants with promotions and discounts; Best Healthy Lifestyle Tech Startup – DirexPlay, “Jailbreak” mobile game developer; Best Fintech Startup – PayGo, a financing service provider that provides free virtual MasterCard for online payments; Best Deeptech / AI / Big Data Startup – MotionsCloud, an all-in-one mobile and AI solution to reduce insurance claim cost and claim cycle time from days to hours; and Best Coworking Space - Emerald Hub.

As their prize, the startup national circuit winners from the Kingdom will compete alongside other ASEAN national circuit winners at the regional grand finale in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on December 13.

They will participate in the two-day Global Entrepreneurship Community (GEC) Summit 2017 from Dec 12 to 13, where they stand an opportunity to be funded at Rice Bowl’s investment matching sessions.

The GEC Summit 2017 is organised by Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance and supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Ministry of Higher Education.

“This will also give them exposure to industry and media networking sessions. Winners will also get to participate in cross-regional exchange programs in Southeast Asia and attend other Global Startup Awards celebrations,” said Rubi-Ain, adding that this would allow them to expand their netowrk and gather information for market access.

The Cambodia Rice Bowl Startup Awards ceremony is hosted by the National Institute of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT (NIPTICT).

This award ceremony is the final leg of the national circuit held in each ASEAN countries. Following announcements in Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam and Cambodia, all the winners will meet in Kuala Lumpur for the grand finale in December.

Regional circuit winners from the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2017 will go on to compete against other regional startups at the Global Startup Awards 2018 to be held in China next year.