In a world where funding knows no boundaries, think global from day one, startups urged
The good news is, there is more money around and at the early stage, it’s a good time for all startups. The bad news is, at the late stage, money is chasing fewer startups.
“Companies can come in early with traction these days. That’s when investors pile in. But at the late stage, competi [...]
Traveloka launches Xperience in bid to be travel and lifestyle platform
In its bid to become a travel and lifestyle platform – it does not like the term “superapp”, I was told by Traveloka executives – the Indonesian-based OTA has launched Traveloka Xperience for consumers to discover travel and lifestyle activities.
Christian Suwarna, senior vice presiden [...]
The Wrap: APAC tourism boards are most online ready for Muslim travellers, study reveals
News Roundup: A report looking at how online ready national tourism organisations are to meet the requirements of the growing Muslim travel market, Travelport winning the bid for new contract with Webjet, Naumi Hotels acquiring another property in New Zealand, Radisson Hotel Group’s launch of new [...]
EasyParcel lands US$10.6m in funding to grow its operations across ASEAN
AirAsia’s cargo and logistic arm Teleport (formerly known RedCargo Logistics) has co-invested with venture capital firm Gobi Partners, under a 50:50 arrangement, a total of US$10.6 million in Penang-based online courier platform startup, EasyParcel.
The startup raised an undisclosed amount in [...]
Jayride is global and now wants to be the “NDC of ride-hailing”
When asked about a group of people hovering around a high table in the hallway of Jayride’s Sydney headquarters, founder and managing director Rod Bishop explained they were doing a daily pow-wow, and they were doing it standing to “keep it short”.
Once you are privvy to Bishop’s vision map [...]
SIA seeks out ground-breaking ideas in travel tech for fifth AppChallenge
Singapore Airlines, in collaboration with NUS Enterprise, is on the hunt for the biggest breakthroughs in travel technology with this year’s SIA AppChallenge. The deadline for entries is August 23.
In its fifth year, the hackathon will
invite startups and university students to address six pai [...]
FlyMya takes flight as WiT Japan & North Asia Startup Pitch champion
Myanmar-based OTA, FlyMya has emerged as this year’s winner of the WiT Japan & North Asia Startup Pitch powered by Amadeus, held last week in Tokyo. Flymya was also the winner of the People’s Choice Award by popular vote.
As this year’s victor, FlyMya have won
tickets to attend WiT Si [...]
Letter from Kanazawa: Having a “kimono” moment in Japan’s New Golden Age
“Are we moving already?” We had not even put away our bags, let alone sat down and settled, when we realised the Shinkansen was already in motion. 11.35 to be exact.
We are headed to Kanazawa after an intense two days of WiT Japan & North Asia where the talk was about how tech was [...]
Travala.com: Asia more advanced than Europe in cryptocurrency adoption
Travala.com, a blockchain-based hotel booking platform headquartered in London, says his bookings show that Asia is currently “more advanced than Europe” in the adoption of cryptocurrency in the travel space.
“At the moment, cryptocurrency adoption is still in its early stages, b [...]
The Samurai swords are out in travel – Hughes calls out Google as an OTA, LINE reveals its superapp Pay power
A high-intensity Samurai “tate” swordfight opened the eighth WiT Japan & North Asia last week, leading some to draw a parallel with the growing competition in online travel. Certainly, the online share of the region’s market continues to grow but there’s no doubt that the intensity of t [...]
