Touch Sopor
Nakder App is a Cambodian-based digital tech solution to help young travelers connect with like-minded users and enjoy using photo storage with the capacity to set photos to private or easily share with their friends. The app is free to use with in-app purchase storage and features to maximize user experience in creating their travel stories.
Earlier this year, as part of its pre-launch initiative, Nakder App invited the public to register as the first users. “We came up with the idea when our friends started taking so many pictures from our trip, but some of them are funny moments, some are supposedly secrets and some are just enjoyable narrations of our trips that we wish to share,” said Darom Sovannareach, Co-founder and CTO of Nakder App.
Two of the co-founders were selected among the other five startups from Cambodia to be part of the first cohort of a private incubation program organized by Startup Factory in early 2022. In 2021, the team was also selected to join the ideation program organized by Angkor 500, which is a collaboration between San-Francisco-based venture capital firm (500 Startups) and the government-funded Khmer Enterprise.
To read more about Cambodia’s startup incubation facilities click here.
Targeting young travelers in Cambodia and the region
Out of the total addressable market size of over 150 million Generation Z (Gen Z) travelers in Southeast Asia, Nakder startup from Cambodia aims to capture 1% of the market in the next two years. But with more potential interests and support from different angel investors and new members to be recruited, the startup hopes to eventually expand further across Southeast Asia.
Researchers and popular media define Gen Z as those born from the mid to late 1990s to the 2010s as ending birth years.According to a research study almost 80% of Gen Z reported using smartphones for the in-trip and inspiration phase of their travel, travelers would have many pictures from different angles of narration.
“I normally have so many pictures from every single trip that I go on, and it is very challenging for me to keep those beautiful memories organized, and when I look for some of those memories, I’m not very sure where it has been,” said Sok Nary, a young curious traveler.
“We believe there are emerging spaces to bring out innovation for younger Gen Z for extra enjoyable experiences of their travel, not only in sourcing destinations but also keeping their travel memories beautifully organized in ease after their return from the trips”, Touch Sopor, the Co-Founder and CMO of Nakder App.
“However, as we can’t keep it in our private cloud due to limited capacity, we cannot share them on existing social media channels either because we do not feel comfortable to. Therefore, Nakder was born out of frustration and the desire to create beautiful memories for so many travelers,” Darom Sovannareach added.
Startup Factory to assist in Cambodia’s startup sector
“Startup Factory supports founders to accelerate their growth and achieve Product Market Fit within minimum space of time. This is not easy, but we believe that Cambodian startups are increasingly able to do so with the right support and mentoring. We do not only focus on business development but also on ensuring that startup founders are encouraged to build strong leadership and resilience skills to deal with difficulties and obstacles along the way,” said Jitka Markova, startup mentor and co-founder of Startup Factory Cambodia.
“This Accelerator program also provides focused IT/technical support to the CTOs and technical teams to build technology faster and more effectively with an agile software development framework. This support has been crucial in supporting the startups with product launch. Cambodia has a strong talent of founders, and we want to leverage this to build a strong Cambodian startup ecosystem,” she added.
Cambodia has earmarked developing its tech sector to achieve its ambitious aim of becoming an upper-middle-income nation goal by 2030 and match regional neighbors Thailand and Malaysia.
For Cambodia, the digital transformation is about adopting and capturing, and maximizing the benefits of advances in Information and Communication Technology and digital technology to increase productivity and economic efficiency, boost the national economic growth.
To develop Cambodia’s economy, the government has introduced a series of inter-institutional policies and measures, including the Cambodian Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025, small and medium enterprise development policy, measures on SME incentives, the launch of online business registration platform, support mechanisms in the form of funds and institutions.
