Omio raises $80m to fuel global expansion
GROUND transportation platform Omio has raised $80 million that it will use to create “a globally unified transportation network on a single digital platform.”
The funding comes from new investors Lazard Asset Management and Stack Capital Group as well as existing investors NEA, Temasek and f [...]
AirAsia widens scope of superapp services with Google’s help
FOLLOWING the launch of its SUPER+ subscription plan to boost its flights and food delivery, airasia Super App has teamed up with Google to further push its services on the platform.
The two organisations have entered into a five-year strategic collaboration “to advance airasia Super App’s vi [...]
Travel is good for mental well-being, “vaccinations are a part of life”
“Not much space for the unvaccinated,” says Dr Walter Lim
IN Booking.com’s Travel Predictions 2022, which surveyed 24,000 travellers across 31 countries, one finding stands out – that “Vitamin Vacay” is the best thing for mental well-being.
Sharing the
highlights at its media brie [...]
Match fit, Scoot is ready to swap scenario planning for the real thing
Robust and ready to go, Scoot has put pieces in place for a digital future
THREE days after rejoining Scoot in 2020, CEO Campbell Wilson was told to go home. Covid had struck.
But
being locked down at home during “a difficult time, both from a business and a
staff perspective” gave Wilso [...]
Hopper’s hop into the fintech space to innovate travel
From the “worst business you could imagine” to a US$3.5b valuation
A FEW things make Hopper an enviable company today – nearly US$600 million in funding (mostly achieved during the pandemic), a valuation of US$3.5 billion, and never a cent spent on Google ad words.
It ha [...]
“It’s no secret B2B sales are often relationship-based,” says Vouch’s Ling on first business trip since pandemic
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 [...]
Power shifts to travel apps, even in desktop-first markets
Google study shows 58% of travellers in APAC prefer engaging with apps
THAT digitisation was accelerated in Asia Pacific during Covid was not unexpected but what surprised Google’s Hermione Joye was the “massive and unanimous” acceleration of travel app use even in traditional desktop mark [...]
South Korea ranks second, Singapore sixth in global Digital Quality of Life
SOUTH Korea came in second and Singapore sixth in the third annual edition of the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL), which ranks 110 countries.
Covering 90% of the global population, the DQL study is conducted by the cybersecurity company Surfshark and evaluates countries based on a set of fi [...]
Huawei to invest $100m in startups in APAC, makes first travel move in Middle East
Spark programme in second year, Wego first partner in MENA region
AS part of its move away from hardware, Huawei is scaling up its cloud services and startup support in Asia Pacific and while travel and hospitality is still not top of mind, its move into this vertical seems inevitable with the e [...]
And you thought Covid-19 was bad? What’s coming could be worse – life on Mars
What if Apple built a hotel, streamed it like Netflix,
designed it like Airbnb?
By Philip Schaetz and Martin Reiher
FORGET Covid-19. What if you woke up in Elon Musk’s dream? We have conquered the Red Planet. Through terraforming, we built an atmosphere and a liveable ecosystem. Shuttling [...]
