During my high school days, when I was dedicated to gymnastics, I happened to read an article about child soldiers and began to take an interest in the social issues of developing countries. I felt fortunate to have options to immerse myself in what I love, just like I was doing at that time. I wondered why there was such a big difference due to the environment one is born into, just like the difference between myself and the child soldiers, and that curiosity was the start of my thinking about social issues. At university, I considered continuing gymnastics but decided to take on new challenges in different fields."

While studying at APU and in the UK, I learned that simply providing aid to developing countries can lead to dependency on the part of the recipients. So, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a social business that would allow people in the so-called poor countries to sustainably improve their lives. I was particularly interested in microfinance. Microfinance is a collective term for small loans to poor people in developing countries, with the goal of starting businesses or improving lives. Introduced to microfinance by a teaching assistant in my first-year report, I wanted to learn more. Later, in my third year, I interned at Grameen Bank.

I contacted Grameen Bank through their website and was accepted as an intern. During the internship, after learning about microfinance, I visited rural villages and interviewed women borrowers about loan amounts, uses, and changes in their lives. I was able to see firsthand how money was used and the impact it had. I could see the wonderful improvement in people's lives and the reach of microfinance even to small villages. From this experience, I realized that financial services are like a fundamental infrastructure of people. Like electricity and water, access is important, but I also thought it doesn't solve poverty by itself. What's important is how people can gradually improve their lives by using this infrastructure. After the internship, I was determined to work in microfinance in the future.

On my first summer holiday as a working adult, I traveled to Cambodia and met a Japanese entrepreneur running a microfinance service through an acquaintance. He invited me to work with him. Seeing it as an invaluable chance to work towards what I wanted to achieve, I quit the bank and moved to Cambodia. After working under this entrepreneur for nearly three years and learning various things, I became independent and founded my current company in 2017. Initially, we operated a financial services comparison site. It was a 'referral business,' where we would receive referral fees from financial institutions when someone took a loan through our site. Despite pre-screening customers before referring them, we faced a situation where loans were hardly ever granted. Despite over 80 microfinance institutions specializing in small loans in Cambodia, the number of people who could actually use the services was very limited. When we asked customers directly, we found issues such as lack of collateral and necessary public documents. I began to wonder if there was a way to measure creditworthiness outside of conventional methods since people who could repay were being rejected. As a result, I discovered that smartphones were widely used in Cambodia, and that the data within these devices could potentially be used for credit scoring. I decided to take the risk and start a lending business. After fundraising, hiring engineers for app development, obtaining a business license, we managed to launch the service in March 2019. Fundraising and hiring technicians were quite challenging. The app is named Spean Luy, which is the same as our company name. In Cambodian, Spean means 'bridge' and Luy means 'money.'"

The most distinctive feature of our company is the use of machine learning (AI) to make immediate lending decisions based on smartphone data. Depending on the credit score calculated by machine learning, we lend up to $1,000. Our company is the only one that currently offers a service where the entire loan application and repayment process can be completed via a smartphone app. It is indeed gratifying to hear that people who couldn't use other financial institutions can expand their business scale and improve their income by using our service.

Now we aim not only for microfinance but also to build a digital financial and retail ecosystem in Cambodia. As a start, we created a marketplace within the app where business operators who expanded their business with our loans can list and sell their products. In addition, we have added a post-payment service to support customers who purchase products there. The post-payment service can also be used in physical stores and as of September 2023, it is being used in over 1,000 stores across Cambodia. Like Japan's QR code payment, you can purchase by simply reading information with the smartphone app. We are also developing a financial system that utilizes data and hope to expand it to other Southeast Asian countries in the future.

I have worked hard for the growth of my business, believing that increasing our customer base would lead to solving social issues. I think our business is actually solving issues. However, I have also felt the conflict that comes with being a private company. Initially, I started my company with a social purpose, but I have been concerned that my original aspirations were fading as I became focused on daily metrics and trends. This led me to want to cultivate a viewpoint outside of the private sector, thinking that by learning more about policy and the public sector, I might discover more that I could do. I want to spend the time at graduate school broadening my perspective, talking with students and professors from different backgrounds. It's a continuation of the decisions I've made since choosing APU, or even since my days dedicated to gymnastics - to decide for myself, take action, and find what I truly want to do. It feels very much like me, and I want to continue to work on solving social issues.