BeMyGuest, one of the fastest growing tour and activities booking platforms in Asia, closed its Series A round of funding on July 13, led by Raffles Venture Partners and renowned technology investor, Koh Boon Hwee and his group of investors.
Also participating in the round are SPRING SEEDS Capital, the investment subsidiary of SPRING Singapore; Chan Brothers Group, Singapore’s largest and most established group of travel agencies; and Meng Xiong Kuok and Leland Kwee, investors from the travel industry, .
The amount of investment was not disclosed, but BeMyGuest said this round brought its total equity funding to S$11.5 million (US$8.5 million). It would use the funds to further accelerate the company’s rapid growth across Asia.
“This Series A is an affirmation of our vision and validation of our business model. We are certain that the quality of our technology, content and customer service will take us through the next phase of growth with an extremely robust partnerships pipeline going live in 2017 and beyond” said BeMyGuest CEO & founder, Clement Wong.
BeMyGuest’s Blanca Menchaca (right) and Clement Wong (2nd right) with investor Chan Brothers Group
Anthony Chan, managing director of Chan Brothers Group, said the company’s investment in BeMyGuest would see it continuing “to develop and expand our travel ecosystem alongside capturing different market segments, as we move towards the future of travel that is more efficient and accessible to our customers.”
Ted Tan, deputy chief Executive of SPRING Singapore and chairman of SPRING SEEDS Capital, added that BeMyGuest has a highly scalable technology platform that is capable of aggregating and distributing Asian tours, attractions and activities to its partners.
“Not only does BeMyGuest contribute in upgrading the technological capabilities of our local travel agents, it will also increase tourist arrivals by marketing our local attractions to international visitors.”
Blanca Menchaca, BeMyGuest COO & co-founder, said the fresh funding would enable the team to continue “creating the largest platform of tours, activities and attractions across Asia”.
BeMyGuest’s focus is to serve the Asian market
The company is working with over 500 strategic distribution partnerships including Ctrip, Ticket Monster, Tink Labs, Yatra, Tuniu, Alitrip and Travel.jp. Its database includes over 25,000 activities, attractions, day tours, ground transfers and events in over 900 destinations.
Last year BeMyGuest pivoted to focus on its B2B business, which resulted in the company on track to reach the target of S$100 million (US$72 million) in sales through existing and new partnerships with many of the largest B2C travel companies.
Alongside this Series A funding is the launch of BeMyGuest Labs, a platform where suppliers and resellers can leverage on the company’s distribution network through a range of travel technology solutions. These include supplier inventory push API, multilingual pull API, white labels, B2B agents marketplace, instant confirmation, e-tickets, revenue management system and more.
BeMyGuest Labs offers travel technology solutions to suppliers and sellers.
BeMyGuest was a finalist in WIT Startup Pitch in 2013, and has since gone on to win a slew of awards including ‘Best Business Innovation’ award at Singapore Tourism Awards 2016, ‘Top Online Travel Agent Partner 2016 award’ from Resorts World Sentosa and ‘2016 Top Supporter’ award from Wildlife Reserve Singapore.
The company was also named ‘Best Strategic Partner 2016’ by China’s largest online travel agency, Ctrip, earlier this year, and landed a top five position in the travel category in Fast Company’s ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies in 2016’ for its supplier travel technology.
• All images credit: BeMyGuest
