Mystifly extends flights platform to non-travel brands, creates new call centre business
“We survived, now ready to thrive,” says Rajeev Kumar on 12th (no, second) anniversary
IT may be Mystifly’s 12th anniversary but to founder Rajeev Kumar and co-founder Bharat Goyal, it feels more like its second year “because we went back to zero” when the pandemic devastated its B2B f [...]
Strength to strength – WiT Startup Pitch alum Split goes 0 to 700 amid pandemic
"The headwinds of Covid became tailwinds for our pivot", says Dylan Tan
WHEN Dylan Tan and co-founder Vishvesh Suriyanarayanan made the decision to pivot their start-up Split in March 2020, it was a move borne of desperation. Sixteen months on, instead of desperation, it looks like inspiration t [...]
What Yanolja intends to do with its new $1.7b funding
No plans for consumer superapp outside South Korea, focus is on building next-gen travel platform “beyond OTA”, says CEO Jongyoon Kim
WHEN news broke of SoftBank Vision Fund’s US$1.7b investment in Yanolja last week staff of the South Korean travel unicorn were working from home due to tig [...]
Thrust Carbon finds sweet spot in corporate travel programmes
EVERY startup needs to find its product-market-fit moment and it appears that for Thrust Carbon, which came out of an IATA hackathon in 2019, its time has arrived.
According to Glenn Thorsen, director of partnerships, Thrust Carbon started out as an offset API that plugged into airline checkout [...]
Fintech companies targeting the next billion users are living a pipe dream. Here’s why
This article was originally published by Saurya Simha Velagapudi in e27
THE future belongs to those who keep their feet firmly planted on the ground. This also applies to fintech companies.
Before we get into fintech companies, let us begin this article by taking a quick history lesson.
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WiT Startup Pitch 2021 is back, with $250,000 worth of AWS credits and support
WiT’s annual Startup Pitch is back, bolstered by the continuing collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, for the fourth year running.
AWS will provide over US$250,000 worth of AWS credits and technical support towards WiT Startu [...]
Co-ownership of guests, laser focus on high value experiences: Martha Waslen on the DayAway difference
WHEN we spoke to DayAway founder Martha Waslen in April, the startup had just closed a successful seed funding round and brought onboard its only other employee. Since then, the team has grown to 25 members (a mix of employees and contractors) and expects to close a Series A capital raise by the en [...]
Thank you, Covid. Ling can Vouch for the fact that in crisis, an opportunity
Chatbots are “an entry point towards constructing a customer journey”, says entrepreneur who found his footing in travel after two failures
TWO failures later, former government scholar-turned-entrepreneur Joseph Ling may have finally found his footing with Vouch, “the app-less hotel [...]
Velocity Ventures closes first round of funds to focus on Covid-19 themed mandate
VELOCITY Ventures, a hospitality & travel-focused venture capital firm based in Singapore, announces the initial closing of the first-ever venture capital fund dedicated to hospitality and travel startups.
The fund has a Covid-19 themed investment mandate, focusing on supporting distressed a [...]
RedDoorz goes up the value chain with fourth brand, Sunerra
AS it chases scale and its ambition to be South-east Asia’s largest hospitality company, Singapore-based RedDoorz yesterday launched a new mid-scale brand, Sunerra Hotels, pitched at the three stars and above market.
This is the fourth brand in its stable as it attempts to climb up the value c [...]
