Homegrown start-up YouAdMe looks to establish a foothold in the region by tapping on young, technologically proficient youths to transform the face of advertising and subsequently create an entire ecosystem for digitising Cambodia.

The company’s effort has received a timely boost in the form of an exclusive partnership agreement and with strategic investment from Wing (Cambodia) Limited Specialised Bank.

YouAdMe is operated and managed by individuals with rich advertising and financial industry experience.

The team is tapping into the large pool of social media savvy youths to place authentic, human-driven reviews back under the spotlight by connecting brand partners with their customers interested in creating custom content.

“YouAdMe has already gone live in Phnom Penh. The app currently hosts more than 500 merchants with more than 50,000 consumers participating in advertising activities on the platform.

“These investment intend to develop an infrastructure and solutions that link businesses to their customers. We look to provide more innovative digital products and solutions that provide consumers with a source of incentives, access to more digital services, and generally helping them leapfrog into the digital age,” said Bernard Teo, co-founder and CEO of YouAdMe.

Jojo Malolos, board director and advisor of Wing said that he saw a disruptive but creative nature of advertising that will not only impact the mid to upper market but Wing’s target market - the micro, small and medium enterprises.

“What looks daunting and huge as an opportunity at the banked, here is much bigger opportunity to bring this creative innovation to micro businesses and bring them up to the level that was previously unfathomable. Therefore we pursued YouAdme and today we are happy to break barriers not only in markets but in mindsets.

“Imagine bringing small retail stores, coffee shops, small remote schools, TukTuks, micro-entrepreneurs selling their products on Facebook to the mainstream advertising. This is the next level of Wing-YouAdme partnership - from banking the unbanked to advertising the unadvertised and marketing the ‘unmarketed’.

Consistent with the goals and objectives of Wing, which is to provide mobile financial access to every Cambodians, this partnership will endeavour to give micro-entrepreneurs and urban and rural customers the opportunity to be creative, earn income and improve their business.

Malolos believes the partnership is not like any other partnerships Wing has signed before, because it is a strategic integration of talents, ideas, resources and common goal to improve the lives at the base of the income pyramid.

Other strategic thrusts of the partnership include bringing financial inclusion and providing future-ready digital solutions that will transform the ecosystem in the Kingdom.