Startups
From Startup winner to global success: Wheel the World’s accessible travel revolution continues
11/04/2025 by WiT
Revenue has tripled since winning Global Startup Pitch two years ago – improving access to travel for more than 20,000 people Wheel the World, the award-winning online travel marketplace making the world accessible to people with disabilities, is empowering tourism offices, destination marketing [...]
From surfing to startups: Ross Veitch on founding Wego, cracking the Middle East, and the AI-driven future of travel
07/04/2025 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Ross Veitch never set out to be a tech founder. In fact, he was closer to becoming a full-time surfer than a CEO. Yet today, as co-founder and CEO of Wego, one of the leading travel metasearch and marketplace platforms serving the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Veitch is proof that unconventional beg [...]
Catch-up Podcast: True power of AI. Alipay’s success in Malaysia. OTAs in UAE. Africa’s unique path.
24/03/2025 by WiT
We're trying something new with our weekly-ish podcast - we're outsourcing it to Artificial Intelligence. This is both an experiment and, if we're being honest, a convenient way to digest the top articles of the week from the WiT website into a nugget-of-a-podcast. We'll release a new episode every [...]
Fritz Demopoulos on self-awareness, fishing and outsiders | Conversations On Turning 20
20/03/2025 by WiT
When you get to the ripe young age of 20, you’re bound to collect lots of stories – not only about the past but lessons for the future. As WiT marks its 20th year in 2025, we turn the spotlight on our community, our tribe pioneers and leaders, to tell their stories and share their views on th [...]
From redundancy to HeyMax: Plugging into the traveller’s economy to help people travel more, spend less
05/03/2025 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
A fintech-loyalty play where it’s about the traveller, says Joe Lu Joe Lu was on a swing with his newborn daughter in Kobe, Japan during a month-long sabbatical, when he got the news that the Facebook engineering office he had started in Singapore and headed since 2019 would be closed down and j [...]
Calling travel startups of the world: Global Startup Pitch returns in 2025
20/02/2025 by WiT
Grand Finals to be held at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona Travel startups from across the world will have the opportunity to expose themselves to the global market once again when the Global Startup Pitch, by WiT and Phocuswright, returns for its 2025 edition. Now in its fourth year, the globa [...]
Klook secures $100m from Vitruvian Partners
12/02/2025 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Ethan Lin: “This raise isn't just about capital, it's about confidence” Barely more than a year since it raised $210m in December 2023, Klook, the leading platform for experiences and travel services in Asia, has announced US$100 million in funding led by the global growth investment firm Vitru [...]
Belli takes a crack at disrupting the massive air cargo market
11/02/2025 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
$6 trillion worth of goods a year flown by air, 35% of world trade With global air cargo at a record high, it is no wonder that new tech startups are attempting to disrupt this sector that transports $6 trillion worth of goods annually, accounting for approximately 35% of world trade by value, acco [...]
From “self-destruction” to successful exit: How Brett Henry turned MG Group around
23/01/2025 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Singular mission to build world’s best B2B hospitality marketplace amid Asian Century Fresh from a successful exit in which he engineered the sale of Indonesia's MG Group to Creador, a South-east Asia private equity firm earlier this month, Brett Henry, president director and CEO, is a man with a [...]
From Mallorca to the world: How Hotel Treats, nurtured by two couples, is going places with day experiences
21/01/2025 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Every startup has an interesting back story and Hotel Treats, the Scaleup Winner (People’s Choice) of the Global Startup Pitch 2024, is no exception. It was founded seven years ago by two couples, who didn’t even meet in person until 18 months after starting the business. “We did everything [...]