Our story
Over the past decade, our young, energized team and community of impact makers has been working to build a better Cambodia.
OUR VISION
A more innovative, sustainable, and inclusive Cambodia.
OUR MISSION
We inspire, connect, and enable a new generation of impact makers — including youth, entrepreneurs, and innovators — through programs, consultancies, community building, and online learning to support them in making a positive social and environmental impact.
Our "Why"
This is a pivotal time in Cambodia.
55% of Cambodia’s population is under 30 years old. This presents a huge opportunity to inspire and equip a new generation of mission-driven doers, thinkers, and leaders.
Impact can’t happen without collaboration.
We believe in the power of collective action. We’re driving collaboration across sectors, age groups, and borders to transform the way we tackle today’s greatest social, environmental, and economic challenges.
We are optimists at heart.
We meet impact makers every day that prove to us that there is a reason for hope. We’re here to help them find and scale innovative solutions to build sustainable economies, transform agriculture systems, improve access to services, and more.
Our impact journey
2013
Planting the seeds
Recognizing the lack of a coordinated network for social enterprises in Cambodia, a group of like-minded friends founded Social Enterprise Cambodia in 2013. It started with a simple website and newsletter. As the popularity of the online network grew, the team started organizing more events, building partnerships, and connecting with the regional social enterprise ecosystem — which led to discovering the global Impact Hub network!
2015
Cultivating community
We were thrilled to officially become Impact Hub Phnom Penh in June 2015 and join the global Impact Hub network. Partnering with Joma Bakery Café, a regional social enterprise, we opened a small co-working space and welcomed our first members. It wouldn’t be long before we put down roots in a larger new office, which would become our physical home for the next eight years.
2016-2019
Building a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem
At the time, Cambodia’s entrepreneurship ecosystem — let alone its social entrepreneurship ecosystem — was nascent. We set out to build a space for and by Cambodian changemakers. In addition to organizing workshops, convening national and international experts, and building community, we launched Cambodia’s first social entrepreneurship incubation program, EPIC, in 2016. From there, we expanded our programming — supporting hundreds of diverse entrepreneurs and youth leaders through tailored capacity-building, mentorship, and experiential learning.
2019-2021
Spreading our wings
Recognizing the tremendous hunger and opportunity for innovation across Cambodia’s provinces, we expanded our impact beyond Phnom Penh through new in-person and online programs. Towards this end, we launched our online learning platform in 2019 (just in time for the Covid-19 pandemic!) and began working with universities to integrate an entrepreneurship curriculum. We also expanded our training-of-trainer and youth mobilization programs to cultivate a vibrant pipeline of social impact leaders.
Ongoing
Driving progress towards our vision
Today, we have become Cambodia’s largest community of social innovators. We are actively working to diversify and strengthen our impact: nurturing start-ups across new thematic areas, particularly in agriculture and rural development; mainstreaming more inclusive and equitable practices across everything we do; fostering impact in emerging sectors, such as online media; and continuing to build Impact Hub Phnom Penh as a thriving workplace and home for social innovation in Cambodia.
A more innovative sustainable inclusive Cambodia
Locally rooted, globally connected
We are proudly part of the global Impact Hub network — a community of 320,000+ impact makers across 110+ locations. Our collective purpose is clear: to build a regenerative economy where business and profit serve our people and the planet.
