Winning this year not about highest revenue growth but investing in right pillar, says Klook’s Gnock Fah
FRESH from raising another $200 million, Klook’s COO and co-founder Eric Gnock Fah spoke to Yeoh Siew Hoon about how this new round was not about staying afloat but growing, its strategy to build an eco-system of services, backed by a merchant model, and how this year will not be about highe [...]
Indonesia’s Traveloka finds strength in local markets amid the pandemic
TRAVELOKA president Henry Hendrawan discusses how the online travel unicorn has rebounded by helping travelers in Southeast Asia find—and finance—fun close to home.
A year ago, Henry Hendrawan was working on expanding offerings on the eight-year-old online platform while preparing for th [...]
Undaunted, LokaLocal forges ahead with virtual tours for activities in Malaysia
EVEN before Malaysia entered its first MCO (Movement Control Order) in March last year, LokaLocal, the travel tech platform founded in 2016 to connect travellers to local experiences hosted by Malaysians, had started seeing a drop in bookings.
It quickly moved to a content
and media play, settin [...]
IATA Travel Pass, set for March launch, seeks to give governments confidence to re-open borders
With APAC air travel at 5% of 2019 levels, need for “globally accepted framework” is acute.
THE IATA Travel Pass, currently in pilot phase with Singapore Airlines, IAG Group, Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways, and targeted for launch by March, will hopefully give confidence to governments [...]
Here’s looking at you, 2021, Part 4: Disappointing start for China, proceed with caution and hope
WE kick off the year with a gathering of views and opinions from our community of industry leaders on their outlook for 2021, from their level of optimism and their plans to get through the year. Here’s the fourth collection.
Steve Saxon, partner with McKinsey & Company, China (f [...]
Klook proves mettle, raises $200m to digitise industry on back of Covid
KLOOK today announced that it has raised US$200 million in additional funding. The Series E round was led by Aspex Management, an investment fund focused on Asia Pacific, in addition to other new investors. Sequoia Capital China, Softbank Vision Fund 1, Matrix Partners China, and Boyu Capital, who [...]
Skycanner identifies unserved routes to help aviation partners in recovery
SKYSCANNER is helping its airlines and airports partners on their recovery journey with the introduction of Unserved Routes’ data module, which identifies untapped demand for new direct flight services.
According to Skyscanner, this new tool helps the aviation sector “leverage forward lookin [...]
The Wrap: KL International Airport to use facial recognition for passenger authentication, D-EDGE launches new resource platform, and more
THE
Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology industries, and to keep
track of developments in these sectors as businesses adapt and reset to meet
challenges in the era of coronavirus.
Malaysia Airports to roll out facial recognition for faster, safer passenger authentication, repl [...]
Post-Spacemob/WeWork, Fuad makes fintech play with new “BNPL” startup Pace
EIGHT months after his departure from WeWork, veteran entrepreneur Turochas “T” Fuad has unveiled his newest startup in the hot “Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)” space, Pace Enterprise (Pace).
Armed with a “high seven-figure” seed round co-led by Vertex Ventures, a Temasek subsidiary, and A [...]
Business travel will come back more sophisticated with bigger role for TMCs, says Amadeus
BUSINESS travel, when it returns, will likely be initiated for different reasons, have different requirements for planning, and travellers and corporates will place value on different considerations.
Amadeus’
recent report “Reboot. Recharge. Rethink Business Travel”, based on interviews
co [...]
