GetYourGuide nabs $484M Series E round; CEO talks growth, Klook
Berlin-based GetYourGuide will ramp up its efforts to add new markets and broader inventory thanks to a huge new funding round - $484 million - announced today.The Series E round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund and joined by co-investors Temasek, Lakestar and Heartcore Capital, with continued sup [...]
PhocusWire Digest: Online travel lures Amazon; Startup focus on Frontdesk
Can Amazon resist travel?Who can resist $600 million to annual baseline profits? This was Morgan Stanley’s estimate of gains for Amazon should it enter the online travel space. The report for investors also told of the impact Amazon could have on the market, the challenges and issues it would nee [...]
YouTrip raises US$25.5m in pre-Series A to help SEA travellers with payments on the road
Singapore startup YouTrip announced today that it has raised US$25.5m in its pre-Series A – making it the largest funding round for a fintech startup in South-east Asia.
Participating investors include major Asian
family offices and venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners.
Launche [...]
All four Asian startups in 2019 Booking Booster programme earn grants to scale-up
Following the success of the 2019 Booking Booster accelerator programme, geared towards supporting sustainable tourism initiatives, all four qualifying Asian startups have been awarded grants from Booking.com’s €2 million fund.
The four startups were:
NotOnMap (India) for €250k SASANE S [...]
Record European fintech Series A funding for Checkout.com
Checkout.com, the global payment solutions provider, has raised $230m in what is Europe’s largest fintech Series A round ever, and globally the third largest fintech Series A round of all time.
Although in its seventh year of business, this is the first time it has reached out to outside i [...]
Helicopter ride-sharing pioneer Ascent flying high
Ride-sharing has gone up to the skies with newcomer Ascent joining the fray with a pioneering concept – helicopter ride-sharing.
The Singapore-based startup, founded last year, has already seen some initial success in Philippines where it started its service earlier this month with support fro [...]
Grab adds four new services in quest to become “everyday super app”
In a bid to evolve from ride-hailing app to super app, Grab
announced four new services to its platform – trip planning, hotel booking,
on-demand video streaming and movie tickets.
To deliver these services, Grab is
partnering with Booking.com and Agoda for its hotel bookings (no surprises he [...]
Startup Spotlight: Traveknowledgy is out to make TMCs and OTAs even more profitable
This week, WiT chatted with Maxim Sevastianov, CEO of Traveknowledgy – a "post-booking process automation and fare optimisation" startup. It's a bit of mouthful, but read on to find out how this travel technology company is out to boost the profitability of TMCs and OTAs.
Describe the business [...]
Startup Spotlight: Davinci TS wants to make an art of group hotel reservations
Meet Davinci TS, a startup that plans to remedy a big business travel pain point: group hotel reservations. It aims to help hotels save time and money while boosting occupation rates... not least, make group bookings a far more seamless process for travel organisers. WiT spoke to founder & CEO, [...]
The Middle East is “golden goose” of travel: Opportunities revealed at WiT ME
Movers and shakers of the Middle East online travel industry gathered at WiT Middle East 2019 in Dubai on April 9 to share their plans to unlock the potential of a fast-changing market being driven by youths – 60% of consumers are Millennials and Gen Z, strong spending power and technology develo [...]
