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Rithy Thul
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
smallworld
Rithy Thul is a Cambodian entrepreneur based in Phnom Penh. In 2011, Rithy started SmallWorld, which starts and runs companies with young Cambodians. They learn beside the team, take on responsibility, and go on to lead companies of their own.
Rithy also started KOOMPI, which makes affordable Linux laptops and software for students and engineers in Cambodia. The SmallWorld team now builds several companies. These include Selendra, an EVM-compatible blockchain network from Cambodia; Baray, a payments API that brings KHQR together so businesses can accept it through one integration; Riverbase, online selling tools for small businesses; StadiumX, ticketing and fan engagement for sport; and VitaminAir, a pilot community for reforestation and sustainable living.
Rithy's view of fintech comes from building payment and blockchain infrastructure for the local market, and from learning what Cambodian businesses and users actually adopt.
Rithy writes about building companies in Cambodia at rithy.org.
Speaking at the summit
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10:20–11:00amMon 16 NovForum StageOpen
Chaktomuk - Rails Across Borders
From Sandbox to Scale: What Does It Take for Financial Innovation to Become Infrastructure?
About this session
A sandbox can show that a financial product works under controlled conditions. It does not prove that the product can survive licensing, integrate with existing institutions, win customer trust or expand into another jurisdiction. The harder question is what happens after testing ends. The panel examines the conditions that should allow an innovation to move from experiment to licensed market participant, including infrastructure access, capital, governance and regulatory readiness. It also explores a more difficult possibility: whether successful testing in one credible jurisdiction can reduce the cost of entering another, and what regulators would need to recognise in each other's processes before regulatory portability becomes possible.
