Creators of GoSoccer to pitch idea to tech giants in S’pore
India loan signed to fund dam in K Speu
WHAT started as an idea to better coordinate pick-up soccer games has become an awardwinning application, and now the five Cambodian university students who developed it are set to fly to Singapore and meet with high-powered tech executives.
The GoSoccer application was declared the winner of the SmartStart competition in Phnom Penh yesterday morning, earning the app’s creators the contest’s top prize: an all-expenses-paid trip to meet with representatives of technology giants Facebook, Google and Microsoft in their Singapore offices.
According to Sengkhun Lim, one of GoSoccer’s founders, he and his friends created the app to help users find like-minded soccer players and reserve spaces to play in Phnom Penh.
“We came up with the idea for finding matches to play, and then decided to include bookings for fields, too,” Lim said, adding that GoSoccer’s profits would hopefully come from the field-booking aspect of the application. While they have not yet officially launched the app, the five co-developers plan to charge a 5 percent commission on each field booking and sell membership packages to field operators.
The SmartStart contest was sponsored by mobile operator Smart Axiata, which gave five teams of young developers $4,000 each six months ago to further develop their ideas. The five teams pitched their products to a panel of five judges in Phnom Penh yesterday morning, with GoSoccer coming out on top.
Smart has kept open the possibility of additional funding for the app in the future, though GoSoccer’s developers seemed more interested in the trip to Singapore than in any additional financing.
“Right now, we’re not thinking about money, we’re just excited to learn from these companies [in Singapore] and use the knowledge to help us scale our platform,” said team member Ratanak Hang.
“Singapore is a high-tech country, and we can learn a lot from them,” added Sovann Lyhour, another GoSoccer developer and a computer science major at Zaman University in Phnom Penh. “We look forward to visiting these big companies and allowing them to inspire us to work even harder on our own projects.”
Other ideas pitched at the final round of the contest included Ligo, a mobile platform for learning basic Khmer language and etiquette; Prestige Gift, a gift-wrapping and delivery service; Spare, a digital platform for renting available office and conference space; and Propey, a digital wedding planning service. INDIA’S state-owned ExportImport Bank agreed to loan $36.92 million to the Cambodian government to fund the development of a dam and reservoir in Kampong Speu province.
The loan will fund the construction of the water management system on the Stung Sva Hab river in Phnom Srouch district. The Sva Hab sits upstream of Stung Prek Tnout, which provides irrigation for parts of Kampong Speu, Phnom Penh and Kandal provinces.
“When there is so much rain during rainy season, the dam will help to store water and stop it from flowing downstream [to Stung Prek Tnout], which will help reduce flooding,” said Chan Youttha, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology. “In the dry season, the dam will release water to [Stung Prek Tnout], and then it will be used for consumption and agriculture.”
The loan agreement was signed in New Delhi on Saturday by Preeti Saran, secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, and Phan Phalla, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. No details about the conditions or terms of the loan were made available.
Youttha said he expected construction on the dam to begin later this year or early next year, and estimated it would take three years to complete the project.