Velocity adds three new startups to portfolio
TRAVEL and hospitality-focused venture capital firm, Velocity Ventures, has announced three new investments in travel and food and beverage (F&B) tech early-stage startups: Hong Kong-based travel booking platform TripGuru, Malaysia-based F&B procurement and inventory management platform F [...]
RedDoorz CEO on SEA potential, performance marketing lessons and growing up fast
Digitisation accelerated among consumers as well as independent hotel owners
YEOH Siew Hoon interviewed Amit Saberwal, CEO of RedDoorz, Southeast Asia's largest technology-driven hotel management & booking platform at the Phocuswright Conference 2021, where they spoke about the breakout reg [...]
Inspired by French Riviera, powered by Sweden, taking root in Cape Town
“Magic happens when there is diversity”: Stephan Ekbergh on Innovation City Cape Town
TRAVEL entrepreneur and CEO of Travelstart, Stephan Ekbergh, is embarking on a new project, Innovation City, to transform his adopted home of Cape Town into a thriving, diverse ecosystem of digital talent, [...]
Letter from Fort Lauderdale: The sun rises on global travel
Expedia's Kern says no more “peanut butter” approach to expansion while Concur founder Steve Singh dives deep into corporate travel disruption
WHEN Mark Mahaney, senior managing director of investment banking firm, Evercore, asked the audience at the Phocuswright conference how many had trav [...]
The Commander and the Hawk: Sometimes it’s good to let go
KAYAK and Open Table chief on entry into hospitality and changes to work habits
THIS week, KAYAK announced two more hotels in New Mexico, in addition to its existing one in Miami. Steve Hafner talks about what this expansion into hospitality means plus how he’s been managing through the pandem [...]
Travel startups take the spotlight at Phocuswright
AFTER a pandemic-related plunge in funding for travel technology startups in 2020, with investment dropping 56% from the previous year, funding through the third quarter of 2021 has surpassed last year's levels and has already reached levels last seen as recently as 2017.
With purse strings loos [...]
How Certares is making capital out of Covid
‘The only shop in town’ has travel companies queuing at the door
IF you’re a travel company seeking pandemic survival funds, there’s probably only one person you are going to call: Greg O’Hara, founder and senior managing director of New York-based investor managers, Certares.
But d [...]
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 [...]
From fighting to reopen to leading the way in tech innovation, Asia travel puts its best foot forward
Key takeaways from WiT Experience Singapore 2021
IT’S been a tradition of past WiTs that a group of us would escape to a remote location or island somewhere to mark the end of yet another event. Over the years, we’ve been to Siem Reap, Bali, Phuket, Samui, Penang, Kuching with Nikoi and Cemp [...]
Thrust Carbon wins Grand Prize and People’s Choice award at WiT Startup Pitch signalling industry intent on sustainability
THRUST Carbon has emerged victorious in this year’s WiT Startup Pitch after beating two other finalists to come out tops in the Grand Finals, held yesterday at WiT Experience Singapore 2021, the first travel conference in Asia Pacific to return to a full in-person and hybrid format.
Thrust Car [...]
