Our first win.

In June 2026, four of us entered Turing Hackathon Cycle 10 — a reverse hackathon themed “Youth and Smart Digital Solutions for Cambodia.” Our track was Market Access for Farmers, and we brought Chomkar: a way to line up a buyer before harvest so Cambodian smallholder farmers can sell in volume and keep the full crop price.

We walked out with the Runner-Up Award (Top 2) and a 1,000,000 KHR prize.

We didn’t win on a slick deck. We won on a working demo and a real problem we could explain to people who’ve lived the sector for twenty years.

What we showed

A working, end-to-end demo of Chomkar’s three portals — farmer, cooperator, and buyer — with the full order loop: a buyer locks an order, a cooperator opens a lot, farmers declare availability, the crop is weighed and graded at a hub, and the farmer is paid on verified weight while the buyer pays a transparent fee on top. No middleman spread, no guesswork.

Why it mattered to us

It’s our first achievement as Chnai Lab — proof that a tiny team can take a real Cambodian problem, build something that works, and have it recognised by people who know the field. It’s also exactly the kind of early signal that opens doors: advisers, first buyers, and grant programs all want to see that something real already exists.

The team

• Vatana — Software Engineering. Built the app and the order loop.
• Hongleng — Computer Science. Built the Khmer AI lesson helper.
• Pagna — Cybersecurity. Weight-lock & payout-ledger integrity, claim-guard rules.
• Geksim — Business. Buyer & cooperator outreach, the pitch, and the room.

Thanks

To the organisers and the knowledge partners — KARPIA, Prohose, and We Money Mobile — and to the judges who pushed us with hard questions. We took every correction home.

What’s next

A trophy is a start, not a finish. The next milestone is pilot proof: one commune, one cooperator, one real buyer, one completed paid route — repeated weekly. That’s where Chomkar stops being a demo and starts being real.