The annual WIT Startup Pitch, an event that has been catalyst for a number of successful businesses, is now receiving submissions for its WIT Japan & North Asia 2017 tour in June.
The WIT Startup Pitch, supported by Amadeus Next, gives participants an opportunity to be coached by industry veterans and to present themselves and their ideas at a WIT Conference.
“We are always on the lookout for groundbreaking ideas helmed by clever, entrepreneurial minds to push the boundaries in travel technology. Out of the WIT Startup pitch, we have seen some incredibly innovative ideas put into action and eventually grow into legitimate successful business ventures. That confirms for us that this event is an effective platform for startups, and we will therefore continue to build it up as a key component of our WIT events,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WIT.
One successful startup pitch participant is Voyagin which made its debut at WIT Japan Startup Pitch in 2013. In 2015, Rakuten, Inc. acquired a majority share in Voyagin.
“WIT is hands-down the best conference we’ve been to (and trust us, we’ve been to a lot of conferences). The community it brings together is second to none – speakers who inspire your vision, industry leaders who are happy to become mentors, and luminaries that become investors. Every single attendee at WIT is someone worth meeting. If you’re a startup or founder, attending this conference is the steal of a lifetime – don’t think, just do it,” said Tushar Khandelwal, Voyagin’s chief operating officer.
Another WIT alumni is BeMyGuest, a WIT Startup Pitch participant in 2012. BeMyGuest went on to win multiple awards including Best Business Innovation at the 2016 Singapore Tourism Awards, and was most recently named on Fast Company’s Top 50 most innovative companies listing – the first Singapore-based companies to achieve this status.
“WIT has opened many doors for BeMyGuest, which a start up in our early days might not otherwise have had access to. WIT is a great platform for travel startups to meet industry giants such as Expedia and Google, and also to gain exposure in different markets. The way the WIT programmes are set up also creates opportunities for learning and training, gaining experts’ insights and understanding new trends and data, and also a certain level of market testing and validation. WIT’s ecosystem also means that participants old and new become a big family which presents a collaborative environment where many can do partnerships or deals together,” said Andrew Tan (left), head of Southeast Asia at BeMyGuest.
Another tours & activities player, Klook, which won the competition at WIT Japan in 2015, just raised Series B round of $30 million in March, on top of Series A $5 million raised in October last year.
To qualify, startups have to be below five years old and be related to travel and tourism.
Up to eight semi-finalists will be chosen and coached to present at the WIT Japan & North Asia 2017 Bootcamp on June 8. From there, four finalists will be selected for the Grand Final Pitch that will take place during the WIT Japan & North Asia conference on June 9.
The Grand Final Pitch winner will win a ticket to WIT Conference Singapore from October 23 – 25, 2017, and to Phocuswright in Hollywood, Florida from November 7 – 9.
For more information and details on submissions, please visit https://witjapan-northasia.com/startup-pitch/
All submissions are to be sent to [email protected] by April 14.
For more information, please contact Vera Lye at [email protected]
