Khmer Water Supply Holding (KWSH) – one of the Kingdom’s leading suppliers of clean, piped water to underserved rural communities in Cambodia – has successfully closed its latest equity round. They have welcomed Marubeni Corporation, a globally recognised Japanese integrated trading and investment business conglomerate, as a new shareholder, while the round also included a follow-on investment from long-time partner Insitor Partners.
A previous capital injection of $2.3 Million by InfraCo Asia enabled the expansion of 600km of new pipeline and helped set the stage for the latest equity round.
This milestone marks a major step forward for the company, which currently provides reliable water access to over 150,000 Cambodians — many of whom previously relied on unsafe surface water collection or distant wells.
Thanks to a proven model of acquiring and upgrading rural water stations, KWSH is professionalising a fragmented sector and directly contributing to Cambodia’s national water access goals.
“This fundraise with such a globally recognised utility player marks the culmination of more than a decade of work — building our station portfolio, assembling a dedicated teams, and developing deep local market knowledge,” said Christophe Forsinetti, Founder and Chairman of KWSH, and a representative of OBOR Capital, the third shareholder.
“This marks a milestone in Cambodia’s private equity market, proving that there are viable start-up and early stage companies for investment for venture capital money. Cambodia’s piped water sector has long attracted interest from foreign investors due to its enabling legal framework for private participation. What was missing was a credible entry platform — KWSH is precisely that,” he added.
Kazuaki Shibuya, General Manager of Marubeni Power & Infrastructure Dept laso lauded the new relationship.
“Marubeni is honoured to become a shareholder of KWSH and to support their mission to expand access to clean water in Cambodia. We believe that our global experience in water infrastructure, combined with KWSH’s local expertise and proven track record, will help accelerate the development of sustainable water services in the region. We look forward to contributing to the well-being of Cambodian communities,” he said.
KWSH plans to deploy the new funds to expand existing stations and increase household connections, acquire new licenses in underserved rural provinces and strengthen service standards and operational capacity across its network.
The company’s model was recently recognised at the 5th Cambodian Water Conference, where its stations ranked 1st and 2nd nationally in both large and medium-scale operational performance categories.
