Newwave’s OCIC Partnership and Canadia Impact Fund Investment: Advancing AI Transformation in Cambodia
by
Newwave Tech Foundry
On 5 October 2026, Newwave Tech Foundry signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC), one of Cambodia’s largest conglomerates, to advance AI transformation across the group’s businesses.
For the Cambodian AI and software development company, founded in 2024, the partnership marks an opportunity to apply its expertise at a much greater scale. It also follows a seed investment from Canadia Impact Fund (CIFC), Canadia Group’s corporate venture arm, announced on 16 September 2026.
Together, the two milestones connect financial backing with an opportunity to put Newwave’s capabilities to work across a major business group. Behind both is the belief that technology built in Cambodia can help businesses transform how they operate.
The OCIC partnership: putting AI to work across the group
Through the partnership, Newwave will bring its AI and software expertise to OCIC’s businesses, helping teams improve processes, automate suitable tasks and respond to changing customer needs.
The focus is practical: identifying where technology can improve day-to-day operations and developing solutions around those needs. Across a diverse business group, that requires understanding how individual companies work and where AI can deliver meaningful value.
This is the work Newwave has been building towards since its founding. The company provides AI transformation and software development services for organisations seeking to improve how they operate. The OCIC partnership creates an opportunity to apply that approach across a wider range of businesses.
“We will be aggressive in bringing AI and the newest innovations to help Cambodian business adapt to new technology, from small companies to conglomerate level,” says Kim Chan Amrithvatey, CEO and co-founder of Newwave. “AI transformation makes that possible.”
Canadia Impact Fund’s investment: backing Newwave’s next stage
Newwave became Canadia Impact Fund’s second investment, marking an important step in the company’s growth.
For Amrithvatey, the investment was a confirmation of the direction she had pursued from the beginning.
“I always knew this day would come,” she says. “From day one I had a clear vision, and I kept working toward it. To me it was only ever a matter of time.”
She attributes the pace of the relationship to a shared outlook.
“An investment like this happens when the mindset, the vision and the DNA of both sides meet,” she explains. “They saw the elements in us that resonated with them, so things moved fast. We were always going to reach this point. Finding a partner who shares the same vision simply means we get there together, and faster.”
The investment supports Newwave’s development as a technology company, while the OCIC partnership provides an opportunity to apply its expertise within a major Cambodian business group. Each supports a different part of the company’s next stage.
The experience behind Newwave’s growth
Newwave’s ambitions are grounded in its experience building software for businesses and communities in Cambodia and abroad.
For DFI Lucky, the operator of Lucky Supermarket, Newwave helped develop its shopping app and built the functionality behind the Lucky Box campaign. Shoppers spending US$15 or more could open a digital mystery box inside the app for rewards, including cash and discounts, connecting in-store purchases with an interactive rewards experience.
In the United States, Newwave built an app supporting the 50 Yard Challenge, used by thousands of young volunteers across all 50 states to help people in need, including elderly residents and veterans. Participants can apply to join, track their progress from their first lawn to their fiftieth, and earn milestone rewards. Administrators can monitor submitted activity in real time and approve or reject submissions, helping them oversee the programme as volunteers progress.
For French startup Check it Easy, Newwave built a mobile platform that makes emergency protocols easier to follow through practical checklists, step-by-step guidance and learning tools. Following the platform’s development, Check it Easy secured €300,000 in equity funding and non-dilutive grants, marking an important milestone in the client’s growth.
These projects show the range of Newwave’s software development experience: retail rewards, community participation and emergency guidance. They provide a practical foundation for the company’s next challenge—applying its technical expertise across OCIC’s businesses.
What the investment and partnership unlock
Newwave plans to direct the investment towards three priorities: expanding its team, developing its own products and strengthening its AI services for enterprise clients.
Over the next 12 to 24 months, the company aims to build the capacity needed to support larger AI transformation projects. That includes strengthening its technical delivery, security, governance and operational processes, alongside the legal and compliance foundations that enterprise work requires.
Product development is another priority. Newwave is developing RE:AI, an AI platform for small and medium-sized businesses, with the aim of making AI capabilities accessible to companies with different resources and operational needs.
Together, these efforts reflect two connected goals: delivering technology for large organisations and helping smaller businesses benefit from AI adoption.
Building Cambodia’s technology potential
For Amrithvatey, the significance of these milestones extends beyond the agreements themselves. When she founded Newwave in 2024, she wanted to demonstrate that world-class technology could be built in Cambodia.
“Cambodia has hidden talent and potential,” she says. “We just needed someone to help open the door. OCIC believing in a company like ours is the best example of that.”
Her ambition is for Newwave to become Cambodia’s leading AI company, build a significant presence in Southeast Asia and eventually earn recognition globally.
Equally important is what that growth could mean for the people building the company.
“We want Newwave to become the standard, the dream workplace for the builders and innovators who never used to have this at home,” she says. “Cambodians should not have to go abroad to do work like this.”
Asked what excites her most, she returns to the work ahead.
“What I am most excited about is the thinking, getting to brainstorm and design AI solutions at a scale we have never worked at before, for organisations of this size.”
She also credits the people who have helped bring the company to this point.
“I want to thank my Newwave team, and Mr. Thierry,” she says, referring to Thierry Tea, co-founder and CEO of Canadia Impact Fund.
For Newwave Tech Foundry, the investment and the OCIC partnership mark the beginning of a larger responsibility: turning confidence in the company into results for the businesses it serves. The opportunity is also a chance to give Cambodian builders more of the ambitious work Amrithvatey once imagined creating at home.
