How Asia’s travel start-ups got their names
Ahead of the WIT Bootcamp: Entrepreneurship & Innovation on Oct 17, we thought it'd be interesting to find out the history behind some of the names of Asia’s travel start-ups. “Many years ago, like many search engine focused marketers, we marketed our hotel product t [...]
If it weren’t for emails and asset managers, it’d be a perfect world
For someone who’s been in the business for 300 years, Franz Donhauser sure looks in great shape.The day I met him at the Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney, he was bouncing like a kid who’s just found a candy store . Something good had happened – a difficult “people” issue had been resolved – and [...]
Multi-mode play GoEuro secures $27m in new funding
A sign that the next hot thing in search is in multi-modal – GoEuro, a multi-mode travel platform, has raised $27 million in Series A funding, led by New Enterprise Associates, a global venture capital firm with approximately US$13 billion in committed capital. All three existing inves [...]
Five start-ups to pitch at WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Five finalists will pitch at the inaugural WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp being held on October 18.Representing a range of business ideas in the digital travel space, they comprise start-ups such as ComeSingapore, Forget Boundaries, Yopir, Tourz and Eco Travel.Each company will have the opportunit [...]
Steve Jobs – he knew me, you know, and he knew you too
I was wondering about doing a blog piece on Apple and the iPhone 4S - struggling with what to write.Then, yesterday - when I first heard the news at 7.45 in the morning (Singapore time) - things changed. And the subject of the piece became clear.I was going to talk about about how a ‘disappoint [...]
The State of Travel Startups
At PhoCusWright, we get a lot of briefings from travel startups. Over the years, we have seen many emerging companies, so we decided to dig into the numbers to see what we could learn about the state of startups in travel – where are entrepreneurs investing their creative capital, and where are in [...]
Boatbay, the Airbnb of boats, launches in APAC & ME
Tapping into the new wave of sharing, the first boat rental marketplace has launched covering Asia Pacific and the Middle East, the two biggest emerging markets for sailing and yachting.Co-founder, Tim Gundry, of Boatbay says it is “the Airbnb for boating, yachting and people who want to experien [...]
Pandabed.com declares multiple winners for #BestInternship contest
It was meant to be a simple experiment: find an intern to travel across Asia documenting PandaBed.com properties and their hosts. The applicants had to create a video of why they think they were the best for the internship. In a short span of two weeks, several thousand people shared the opportunity [...]
Valadoo and Burufly merge to form a new Valadoo.com
Valadoo’s curated travel packages and e-commerce expertise are to be combined with Burufly’s vibrant million-member social travel community to create an Indonesian online travel & lifestyle super site.Valadoo, the online expert in Indonesian travel and Burufly, the largest social travel comm [...]
WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp – Innovation Exchange
So here we are at the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp at the HQ of the Singapore Tourism Board here in Singapore.The day got off to a great start with an inspirational presentation from Morten Lund. More about that session from Siew Hoon so look out for her post.But now the session is Innovation [...]
