Expansion in Europe on back of $1.1m raise
IT is fitting that Joseph Ling’s first trip abroad in the last 20 months was to London where the Singapore-based founder and CEO of Vouch is not only marking his US$1.1 million seed round but also the expansion of his chatbot-based concierge solution for hotels in Europe.
Speaking from London, Ling told WiT, “As we work to deploy our products across more hotels within larger hotel groups, we had the opportunity to work with a number in the UK.
“Considering that travel is opening up in the UK, combined with the labour crunch caused by Brexit and the pandemic, where many eastern European folks have returned to their home countries leaving behind a gaping labour shortage. I think it’s a very ideal time to enter the market for our type of solution.”
Its seed round comes from new Singapore venture capital firm Forge Ventures which launched its debut fund of US$21.9 million in September. Other than Vouch, it has invested in Indonesian grocery delivery service Dropezy; as well as Marathon, a tutoring business based in Vietnam.
Forge Ventures was founded by Foo Tiang Lim and Kaspar Hidayat in partnership with Alto Partners, a multi-family office in Singapore. It aims to found South-east Asia businesses at the seed stage while providing access to experts through its network of collaborators, advisers and limited partners.
In an interview with WiT in July, Ling had spoken of his plans to expand beyond Singapore, which accounts for 90% of its business, hence its need to diversify. It now has operations in Indonesia and South Korea, and will now open operations in London to expand across Europe.
“That’s the reason why we decided to raise money,” he said. “We are already seeing promising traction, and already have 11 properties working with us in the UK. I am cautiously optimistic about the situation, and Vouch will be pushing very hard to dominate the EU market the same way we are doing in APAC.”
Travelling to London at this time wasn’t too difficult, said Ling. “We had to do a pre-flight PCR test and a day 2 Covid test in London, but other than that things were pretty smooth.”
He felt a physical business trip was important at this stage of his company’s growth. “It’s no secret that B2B sales are often relationship-based. After all, we’re selling to people, not faceless organisations. When we deal with new hotel chains that have never used our product before, it gets difficult to build rapport with them, and being just another number or vendor online makes it unlikely we can expand effectively.
“A large part of our sales process is also educating the hotel on why our product will work where so many others have failed before, and it’s difficult to have them feel the enthusiasm we have for our products and our excitement for working with them through a Zoom call.”
Asked if a physical visit gives an advantage to executives who travel during this period vs executives who don’t, Ling said, “I think as with any product, there will always be local competitors in markets we expand into, and these competitors are often the dominant ones.
“What that means is that any advantage from travelling is only over non-local competitors, which probably don’t have large market share, so I feel that there isn’t that big an advantage here.
“When we visit the customers that we already have (not those we are pitching to), they seem really happy to see us and more importantly, appreciative of being heard. I think when executives visit customers and makes them feel heard, there is a much higher chance of customer retention.”
Vouch provides artificial
intelligence and chatbot-based solutions for hotels to streamline operations
and enhance the guest experience. Hotel guests scan a QR code on their
mobile phones to check-in, order food and beverage, make room requests, book
usage of the pool or gym and get answers to questions – eliminating the need
for them to download an app or have face-to-face conversations.
It says it is now used by hotels accounting for 25% of the rooms in Singapore,
with brands such as Frasers Hospitality, Pan Pacific Group and Hyatt Hotels.
Ling believes Vouch is the right product for the right time with hotels grappling with lower revenues and manpower crunches. “There is a genuine need for a solution that helps hotels improve manpower efficiency and the pandemic has accelerated this need.”
