Malaysian online travel startup, Touristly, has rebranded as Vidi to reflect its “evolution from a traditional trip planner to a visual discovery platform.”
The rebranding is also part of the company’s strategy to get a slice of the rapidly growing tours and activities market in Asia Pacific and beyond.
On the choice of the new name, the company said Vidi, Latin for ‘to see’, aptly describes its mission “to help travellers see the world by discovering and booking the best things to do while on holiday.”
On why the company is rebranding now, almost three years after launching Touristly in June 2015, Vidi’s founder and CEO Aaron Sarma explained that the company’s mission from day one was to give travellers the missing link in how they plan their holidays. Its platform enables travellers to customise holidays by eliminating the process of searching through various websites and apps for the best deals.
Aaron Sarma: Rebranding is new chapter in the company’s journey. (Image credit: Vidi)
“Our rebranding has been a natural progression for us as we have sought to continue to improve our offerings to our customers. With the coming mobile app we felt that a fresh brand made sense given what we have planned for the next coming months.”
The company will release a new mobile app for iOS and Android in the coming weeks.
“Developing an app certainly is in the spirit of reaching more customers. Our web product was designed to be used on the desktop and we’ve always believed that when we do roll out our app it should cater to the needs of travellers on the go who want a simple and snappy interface,” Sarma stated as reason for developing the app.
He stressed that the rebranding did not involve any pivoting to the product.
“We are not making a pivot on our business model.” Instead the exercise is a new chapter in the company’s journey “as we move towards making travel discovery more engaging, fun and visual.”
In April last year low cost carrier AirAsia bought a 50% stake in the then Touristly for RM11.5 million (US$2.6 million) and one of the terms was that the company would operate the airline’s inflight magazine, Travel 3Sixty brand. (Read story here)
Sarma confirmed Vidi would continue to power travel360.com with on-ground activities and would continue to leverage assets from AirAsia as outlined in its deal with the LCC.
He did not disclose details on Vidi’s revenue model and strategy for profitability. “Vidi generates revenue by helping customers discover and book travel activities at the best prices. We expect to continually grow our revenue by expanding our reach within the AirAsia network. Profitability is indeed on the horizon.”
Vidi currently has over 13,000 deals on tours, attractions, activities, spas and restaurants in over 72 destinations around Asia Pacific, and will be adding more destinations and tours around the world.
The company has raised investments from Tune Labs, Netrove Ventures Group and is recipient of Cradle Fund’s CIP500 Grant. Its total funding to date is approximately US$3.2 million.
