Soramitsu turned a near-broke startup into Cambodia's Bakong network

In 2016, Soramitsu co-founders Makoto Takemiya and Ryu Okada had only a few projects. The company was funded from Okada's savings and made just enough for food and basic expenses. A Telegram message from someone claiming to represent Cambodia's central bank looked like a scam, but it was a real request to discuss a pilot.

Soramitsu took the opening and in 2017 signed on for Bakong, working with Cambodia's central bank to upgrade interbank payment infrastructure. The system launched in 2020 and lets users send U.S. dollars or riel instantly. The key decision was to turn an unlikely government inquiry into a working national payment network.

The result was a reference system with scale: the National Bank of Cambodia reported 8.5 million accounts using Bakong, and the system processed $12.2 billion in 2022 plus 12.8 trillion riel ($3.1 billion). Rest of World reported Soramitsu had about 150 employees, roughly $20 million in 2022 revenue, and was still largely self-funded and profitable.

Bakong reached 8.5 million accounts and processed $12.2 billion in 2022; Soramitsu grew to about 150 employees, $20 million in revenue, and profitability.

The company had little money and few projects, so a credible institutional opening could change its survival path.

Cambodia needed an upgrade to interbank payment infrastructure, giving Soramitsu a concrete problem rather than a speculative crypto pitch.

Bakong created proof that helped Soramitsu win pilots, feasibility studies, and public grants elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

For a small technical vendor, solve one public infrastructure problem well; proof from a working system can compound into a regional platform.

On the back of Bakong, Soramitsu moved into a Laos central-bank pilot, Digital Lao Kip, feasibility studies in Vietnam and the Philippines, a Solomon Islands proof of concept backed by Japan's METI, and cross-border work involving Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation. The expansion was uneven: the Ukraine pitch did not move forward, the Moscow project did not survive the crypto winter, and the article cautioned that what worked in Cambodia might not transfer to Vanuatu.