A Decade of Building: Reflecting on Glean’s Journey

I started my company over a decade ago with a single, clear idea: to build the capacity of Cambodians in the tech sector. At the time, there wasn’t much of a tech industry here, only one or two universities were even offering computer science degrees. Most students were studying IT, but the curriculum was heavily focused on infrastructure—servers, networking, that sort of thing.

When I first arrived in Cambodia, I had been working as a software engineer in the U.S., and the plan was to bring projects over and set up an offshore outsourcing firm. That would allow us to create jobs, upskill local talent, and eventually connect them to the global tech market.

As with most small businesses, Glean went through several iterations. We started off doing outsourced contract work for U.S. clients, then found a good fit with donor-funded projects in Southeast Asia. We worked with USAID, DFAT, DFID, UN agencies, and others. But over time, we realized that simply building tech wasn’t solving the root problems. We were often brought into projects at the very end, just to write the code for something that had already been scoped years ago. It felt like checking a box.

That realization shifted our focus. We leaned into technology design and got involved earlier in the process. My co-founder and I dove into human-centered design and behavioral research to help donors think more critically about whether and how to use technology in the Cambodian context. We spent years conducting fieldwork, talking to users, and analyzing how people interacted with technology—especially smartphones.

Then COVID hit. Like many, we had to lay off staff, and my co-founder returned to the UK. I got stuck in the U.S. for almost a year. But eventually, I came back to Cambodia and restarted Glean, this time partnering with Liferay, an open source software company. It felt like coming full circle, back to that original vision of showing what Cambodian tech talent can do.

That work opened the door to edtech. We took over Plus Education’s platform and built our own LMS for low-resource schools: tablet-compatible, offline-capable, and designed with low-literacy users in mind. We scaled it across Cambodia and built out our lab and youth development programs. One program was an Impact Lab for computer science students, five months of training and prototyping tools for social good. The other was a digital literacy initiative: running youth clubs in the provinces to teach online safety and bridge the gap between interest in tech and the skills needed to thrive.

But in February 2025, everything changed. USAID issued a stop-work order, and since 80% of our funding was tied to them, it hit us hard. We went from a team of 20 down to four. We were trying to win any bids we could just to keep the lights on.

At that same time, I was in a business accelerator in Singapore. Through that program, I met the CEO of Kydon, a Singapore-based LMS company. After several conversations, it became clear there was a good fit. Between March and May 2025, we closed a deal for Kydon to acquire Glean. It meant our investors were made whole, and we could bring back most of our furloughed staff. A few moved on, but we were able to rebuild.

In a time when many of my peers had to leave the region or shut down entirely, I’m grateful I’ve been able to stay. I’m staying on as CEO of Glean Asia to continue leading our work in Cambodia and hopefully expand to places like Myanmar, Laos, and Nepal.

I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been able to pivot, recover, and keep providing opportunities for Cambodian tech talent to compete on the global stage. The acquisition has taken some pressure off of me financially, which gives me space to focus on what’s next.

For now, I’m still running Glean and also leading impact work for Kydon. In my spare time, I’m learning new tech, currently diving into Godot and trying to build a little game. I’ve always wanted to do that, and now I finally have the time to learn, build, and just enjoy being with my family.

To everyone who has worked with us, supported us, backed us, or helped us weather the USAID stop-work crisis—thank you. Your support truly made all the difference. I’m excited for what’s ahead and grateful that we’re still here, keeping Cambodians in tech, and building forward.