Travel Startups Incubator (TSI) has added B2B mobile communications app Tineri as it’s newest portfolio company with the acquisiton of an equity stake for an undisclosed amount.
Founded in July this year, Tineri is headquartered in Bangkok and incorporated in Singapore. It describes itself as a “solution that enables tour operators, travel agents, and other travel service providers to supplement or replace paper and PDF itinerary documents with a sophisticated yet user-friendly interactive mobile app.”
In addition to trip itineraries, the app also provides pop-up destination details, guide and hotel information, messaging capabilities between office personnel and guides, as well as travellers via text, email, chat, voice, and video, document storage, and daily instant feedback satisfaction surveys.
A simple-to-use content management system allows tour operators to import itineraries from leading back-office solutions as well as from Word and Excel formats.
Tineri, B2B mobile communication, marketing and itinerary platform
Tineri founder and CEO Tim Russell is a travel-focused entrepreneur based in Bangkok who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years. An SEO and social media marketing guru, he is also the cofounder and CMO of Representasia, a startup that provides technology and marketing solutions to travel service providers throughout Southeast Asia.
Tineri’s advisor, Greg Duffell, has nearly 30 years of experience as a leader in travel and tourism technology, and helps organisations from startups to multinational corporations enhance their operations. He is based in Bangkok.
“Bangkok is the hub of Southeast Asia, the world’s fastest-growing tourism industry. Soon Asia will account for more than half of the world’s online travel transactions,” said Russell.
“We believe that by lowering the barrier to entry to mobile itineraries for travel providers of all levels, diversifying into other travel markets including business/incentive, educational, and wellness/medical, and offering a product that is fun and simple to use for operators and travelers alike, we can help create a new paradigm in which mobile travel itineraries are the norm.”
The Tineri team is receiving assistance and feedback from DMC, Trails of Indochina. It currently has two beta testers in adventure travel specialists ,Grasshopper Adventures, and food walks startup, Taste of Thailand. More than 10 other tour operators have signed up to try the Tineri app.
“We’re also in talks with several leading back-office solutions providers for both integration and distribution,” added Russell.
Travel Startups Incubator funds seed-stage and early-stage travel technology ideas and entrepreneurs.
Matt Zito, managing partner at Travel Startups Incubator, said: “Tineri is entering a massive growing travel market in Southeast Asia as travel providers transition from old school, paper itineraries and fulfillment services to mobile on-demand customer support systems including in-destination services, mobile marketing and post trip content creation. According to a recent report by Google South East Asia’s online travel business will approach US$76 billion 2025.”
Travel Startups Incubator was founded in 2014 by the husband-and-wife team of Matt and Nicole Zito. It funds seed stage and early stage travel technology ideas and entrepreneurs through $50,000 investments (US$25,000 cash + US$25,000 in-kind advisory and business development services). The company looks for startups with global travel technology-changing ideas, super-talented entrepreneurs and teams, or real startup traction.
