Focus and fearlessness pay off for RedDoorz as it badgers its way to becoming a unicorn
When you look at the investors who are involved in the latest Series C funding of $70m for “affordable accommodation provider” RedDoorz, you see a clear pattern – every single one brings a different skill set – and for the first time, CEO and founder Amit Saberwal said he “had to say no t [...]
Armed with $2.5m, OpenSparkz goes from startup to scale to help consumers in Asia earn and burn in one step
The Australian fintech startup’s mission is to “make
every loyalty programme in the world a good experience for customers and
merchants, and to be the go-to global platform for loyalty and offers”. Here’s
how.
Terry McMullen has spent his entire career in loyalty and marketing, first wit [...]
On the road to 2020 and beyond, let’s take a look back at WiT Japan & North Asia
We're on the road to 2020 but before we get there, we'd like to take a look back at our last event. It has been a little over six weeks since the eighth WiT Japan & North Asia conference in Tokyo. Taking place over two days and two stages – the Innovation and Main Stage covered virtually ever [...]
Tink Labs and Honest Bee offer cautionary lessons to tech startups, even unicorns fall
I used to be a fan of the Handy smartphone service. Mainly I used it for its wifi hotspot, even though it meant carrying two phones around. I fiddled with the content but never found it compelling enough to get me to book anything through it.
In recent times, I have used it less and less as dat [...]
Startup Spotlight: intheHood fuses private accommodation with authentic local experiences
This week, we chat to intheHood (ITH), a finalist in the WiT Japan & North Asia Startup Pitch 2019, about its plans to become one of Japan's top accommodation providers.
Describe
the business, core products and services in one paragraph.
intheHood (ITH) designs and manages hotels and apa [...]
How Hank Marvin got Dylan out of the shadows to launch Split
As a kid growing up in Penang, Dylan Tan liked sitting next to his father as they listened to music. His father’s of course. Cliff Richard was a favourite and one day the tune “Apache” by the Shadows, Richard’s backing group, came on.
Now for
guitar aficiandos, “Apache” is the stuff [...]
Here comes IVI to liberate revenue managers: Infinito launches a virtual assistant
After nearly a decade working with revenue management companies including IDeaS and most recently, LodgIQ, Fabian Bartnick (pictured above) has decided to launch his first startup to “liberate revenue managers”.
Infinito aims to do this via IVI, a virtual RM analyst and assistant “who will [...]
Excuse me, is that champagne real? Designing with VR and accelerating startups all part of KrisLab’s new playbook
The first thing I reached out for in the
cabin was the champagne. Even though it wasn’t real, it felt like the thing to
do when one is flying in a space that’s decked out to look more like a Japanese
onsen with soft steam billowing all around than the kind of prosaic cabin I am
more used to.
[...]
The startup world may be flat but South-east Asia is the headline act for WiT Singapore Startup Pitch 2019
The fact that a Myanmar-based domestic flight OTA, Flymya, won the WiT Startup Pitch in Japan is proof that the startup world is indeed flat, and that while ideas and execution may be local, global is the new playground for all aspiring entrepreneurs.
“At WiT Japan & North Asia, [...]
Travelstop partners with Traveloka and raises $3m in funding to disrupt corporate travel
If corporate travel sector has been waiting for its moment of metamorphosis, Travelstop is one of the catalysts. Re-affirming corporate travel’s position as the next sector in line for disruption, the Singapore-based startup has raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding.
Silicon Valley-based [...]
