The Smartstart Hackathon is the first of three phases of the SmartStart Young Innovator Program. The SmartStart program aims to enable and empower young Cambodian university talents to launch their own tech startups together with Smart Axiata. The program will offer a unique learning platform, mentorship and financial support to successful participants and teams.

120 applicants will be selected from the pool of online applications to participate in a half-day event called 'Hatch' in each of their respective universities. Those identified as team leaders around their vertical of interest are invited to pitch their ideas and teams are formed based on matching interests and skills. The 30 teams are then invited to attend a two-day prototyping event - the Hackathon, and deliver their final pitches to the judging panels at the Canopy @ Raintree. 

The 10 to 15 successful teams will move onto the next phase - a five day stay-in Smart Technopreneurship Challenge program, conducted in Battambang in mid May 2017.

Raintree is pleased to be the SmartStart venue partner, supporting the latest tech and innovation programs in Cambodia. For more information about SmartStart, click here: https://smartstart.com.kh/ or check out their new Facebook page - Smart for Cambodia, for other Smart social initiatives.