Buddha Food System
Terraced organic farms in the hills of Nepal at golden hour

Founder

Emma Sokha Hin

Co-founder — Strategy and blended finance

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Emma Sokha Hin

Strategy and blended finance

Co-founder

Emma Sokha Hin co-founded Buddha Food System to prove that thousands of small organic farms can be financed, trained and connected to markets without losing ownership of their land or their business.

She designs the blended finance architecture of the group: how grants, first-loss capital, concessional debt and private equity are combined into standard farm packages that investors can buy by the batch, and how each euro flows from the investment fund to the farm and back through the repayment cascade.

She leads the relationship with investors, development partners and industrial offtakers, and keeps the model transparent: every figure presented to a funder comes from the same live financial model used to run the company.

She brings more than fifteen years of experience building digital, social-business and sustainability projects for corporations, public institutions, universities and start-ups — framing and delivering programmes on climate change, the circular economy and sustainable agriculture. A telecommunications engineer by training, she co-founded the Open Team platform in 2015, accredited at the UN Climate Conferences in 2017, and has attended every COP since as an observer. Through Mesh, her investment vehicle, she invests in Buddha Food System in Nepal.

Role
Co-founder
Based in
Paris, France
Investment vehicle
Mesh — investor in Buddha Food System
Education
Engineer, IMT Atlantique (Télécom Bretagne)

At Buddha Food System

  1. 01

    Blended finance architecture

    Structures the portfolios that fund batches of farms, and the rules that keep grants, debt and equity each paid from one clear source.

  2. 02

    Investors and partners

    Leads fundraising, investor reporting and relationships with development finance institutions and impact funds.

  3. 03

    Global offtake strategy

    Opens the industrial, cosmetic, export and city organic channels that give farmers higher-value markets.

  4. 04

    Shared wealth and governance

    Guards the commitment that half of BFS net profit, and a share of carbon revenue, return to farmers.

Path

  1. Early career

    Telecommunications engineer (mobile networks), Télécom Bretagne. Product Owner at Voyages-sncf.com.

  2. Operations

    Chief Operating Officer at Hexatourisme, leading operational strategy and execution.

  3. Consulting

    Consulting associate at LGI on strategy and sustainable innovation: marketplaces, smart cities, data and BI projects.

  4. 2015

    Co-founds the Open Team platform and Call for Team, dedicated to social entrepreneurship and the circular economy.

  5. 2017

    Open Team accredited at the UN Climate Conferences; COP observer every year since.

  6. France – Nepal

    Co-founds an agroecology training platform operating in France and Nepal.

  7. Today

    Invests in Nepal through Mesh and co-leads Buddha Food System.

Expertise

Blended financeSustainable agricultureClimate & COPCircular economySocial businessMarketplacesSmart citiesData & BIProduct management

Next profile

Sudarshan Chaudhary

Co-founder — Field operations and farm data