Dancing in the rain: ZUZU raises $9m, ready to use AI to empower independent hotels
Coming out of the pandemic, Vikram Malhi, CEO and founder of ZUZU Hospitality Solutions, told his team that “we didn’t just weather the storm but we danced in the rain”.
Well, he and his team now have US$9m more reasons to dance following the successful completion of an oversubscribed Ser [...]
Singapore startup Cinewav brings immersive audio to Vivid Sydney for second year running
Visitors to Vivid Sydney, taking place in Sydney from May 26 to June 17, will be able to immerse themselves in a new kind of audio experience, thanks to the world-first, patented technology of Singapore start-up Cinewav.
The startup, whose technology synchronises audio between mobile phones and a [...]
Meet the 25 pitching at Round 1 of Global Startup Pitch
Twenty travel tech startups plus five wildcard participants have been selected for the first round of the Global Startup Pitch. The competition, which is in its second year, is jointly produced by WiT and Phocuswright.
They were selected out of a crop of more than 120 entries received for the [...]
Top of the WiT 24: Ready for China, understanding India, and Google ARCore digitises Singapore
Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news that happened this week in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a quick-and-easy nugget-sized podcast.
In this episode, listen to Juliana Kua's (Assistant Chief Executive, International Group, Singapore Tourism Board) take on the online travel [...]
KabuK Style wants to create diverse culture with its blockchain-powered travel subscription service
Japanese fintech startup with fixed price model expands to South Korea
In terms of timing, Kenji Sunada, founder and CEO of KabuK Style, couldn’t have picked a worse moment to launch his online subscription travel service in 2019. “It was very disappointing,” he laughed. “We didn’t expe [...]
Japanese food platform byFood raises $2.24m to expand in Japan and Asia
The paths of Serkan Toso and Kaoro Joho first crossed when they found they were doing something similar with their food startups – Toso was running Tokyobyfood.com, a website to help foreign travellers find Japanese food while Joho was operating Tablecross, a restaurant reservations app.
Both h [...]
From reseller to global bedbank: How technology “became a weapon” for DidaTravel
Dida expands, gets into flights and tours & activities
The first time you meet Rikin Wu, founder and CEO of Chinese hotel bedbank DidaTravel, you immediately sense his pride in his Teochew roots.
This dialect group, hailing from the Chaoshan region in Guangdong Province, China, is known fo [...]
Travel startups: End of the boom, or beginnings of a renaissance?
With the second edition of WiT and Phocuswright’s Global Startup Pitch still open for entries, Mike Coletta, manager of research and innovation, Phocuswright, analyses the state of travel startups in this report. The deadline to apply is April 30.
Travel startups have enjoyed a good run. Pho [...]
SmartRyde Inc raises $3.4 million in series A+ funding round, introduces “Demand Partner API”
Company will invest in corporate functions, building strengths of business teams, and product development.
Japan-based SmartRyde Inc, the owner of a pre-booked airport transfer marketplace, SmartRyde, announced that it has published a new product called “Demand Partner API”.
With this prod [...]
Virtual tours are getting popular, and Actsugi meets that demand in Malaysia
“Virtual tours are not an alternative to actual tourism - it’s a pre-marketing tool.”
When the pandemic first hit, one concept that gained popularity was virtual tours. With travel restricted, people turned to digital tours of popular destinations as an alternative. Some travel companies surv [...]
