Luxury Escapes to roll out flights and experiences as it scales up in Asia
Australian boutique travel brand, Luxury Escapes, has suddenly become very visible across Asia. In fact, it’s hard to escape its emails or its social ads if you’re living in Asia and that's because the company is ramping up its business in the region.
It appointed a head for Asia, Graham Hi [...]
The smart money is banking on new ways to pay, hands down
I was having coffee at the airport last
week and when I wanted to pay, the “Uncle” asked me, “Do you want to pay by
Alipay? Wave? Grab?”
At the
cashier, I was again asked the same question – only this time, I was offered
“Pay Lah” as well, one of the local bank wallets.
I got s [...]
Our time has come, says Splitty Travel, eyeing Asia and a new B2B split reservations offering
In many ways, Israeli-based startup Splitty Travel feels its time has finally come, both for its “split reservations” model to be accepted into the mainstream and for its entry into Asia. “It’s interesting that the big OTAs are now playing with some of the things we have been doing fo [...]
From “Yarikuri” to “Omoroi”: The Peach way of doing things, all in a book
Peach CEO Shinichi Inoue has the reputation of being different, doing things in a creative and smart way, yet always coming across as someone who just uses plain old common sense a lot. At least that's what I have gathered from the few interviews and interactions I've had with him over the years.
[...]
How Foo broke the glass ceiling by switching lanes, and how Luxe Nomad wants to be APAC’s largest villa management company
After 10 years working in private equity, Foo Lee Lian decided she needed a break. “PE’s an aspirational career when you’re starting out but it can be very stressful and intense. It’s also very male-dominated and as a woman, it’s hard to see your way to the top.”
Aware of the glass c [...]
From betel to kale, Oway founder Nay Aung on quest to build Next Gen “pagoda” in Myanmar
There we were in Parami Pizza, a popular pizza joint in Yangon. Nay Aung, CEO and founder of Oway, Myanmar’s first OTA, had ordered kale juice and I, a coffee. The impression wasn’t lost on me – kale in a country still known for its betel-chewing among the older generation – shows you how m [...]
From Morse Code to 4G, from Yangon to Loikaw, welcome to a new yet old Myanmar
About 20 years ago, I crossed the Burmese border through the Chinese frontier town of Muse. At one of the checkpoints along the route, I heard the tap-tap-tap of a Morse code machine.
This
time, flying into a new and expanded Yangon International Airport that looks
like it could be anywhere, th [...]
After growing roots in Sri Lanka, Findmyfare wants to fan out to “similar” markets
Returning to Sri Lanka in
2012 after having studied and worked in London for most of their adult life,
university mates Thushan Shanmugarajah and Abishek Sithampalam looked around
for something to do.
Their time
working in London had planted in the 20-somethings the idea of doing a tech
startup. [...]
Focus and fearlessness pay off for RedDoorz as it badgers its way to becoming a unicorn
When you look at the investors who are involved in the latest Series C funding of $70m for “affordable accommodation provider” RedDoorz, you see a clear pattern – every single one brings a different skill set – and for the first time, CEO and founder Amit Saberwal said he “had to say no t [...]
Armed with $2.5m, OpenSparkz goes from startup to scale to help consumers in Asia earn and burn in one step
The Australian fintech startup’s mission is to “make
every loyalty programme in the world a good experience for customers and
merchants, and to be the go-to global platform for loyalty and offers”. Here’s
how.
Terry McMullen has spent his entire career in loyalty and marketing, first wit [...]
