Meet the start-up that wants to be the “Expedia” of bus travel in ASEAN
One gave up a high-paying job in a multinational, the other left a family business. Together, Ashwin Jeyapalasingam and Viren Doshi launched a start-up, CatchThatBus, to do exactly that – help travellers in South-east Asia catch that bus online.Ashwin Jeyapalasingam, COO (pictured left in photo), [...]
Armed with new funds, Traveloka looks to build on OTA offering
Traveloka, which recently raised Series-A funding with Global Founders Capital, a new VC set up by Rocket Internet, is looking to cement its position to become the leading online flight booking in Indonesia.Co-founder, Ferry Unardi (pictured left) said with the funds (he declined to disclose the a [...]
#wit2013: Asia will lead travel innovation and watch out for more disruptive start-ups
Amit Anand, managing partner of Jungle Ventures (pictured below right), believes Asia will be at the forefront of travel innovation in the years ahead and that the next wave of start-ups will be more innovative and disruptive.Anand, who was among the first investors to take a bet on Travelmob an [...]
The Flocations story and why the WIT Developer & Designer Challenge
The story of Singapore-based start-up Flocations and how it morphed from a graphical search interface into a marketplace for tour packages is a good example of how entrepreneurs with good ideas can often get lost or caught in the complex world that is travel.Let’s start at the beginning. I first [...]
Mygola’s new claim – create amazing trips in 15 minutes – as it pivots to itinerary model
Mygola, which started as a travel planning service with the aim to be a “global uber travel agent” to make it easy for customers to plan their holidays, has changed its model to be a one-stop shop for users to plan their travel itineraries.In an interview with WIT last July, Anshuman Bapna, CEO [...]
WIT Challenge aims to put context into ideas to aid start-ups
The world is hungry. Hungry for new ideas, for growth, for – well almost anything new. Travel has been at the forefront of web adoption. We can see the way in which the Expedias/eLongs, Agoda/Pricelines, Qunars, Skyscanners and other companies have changed the way we think, search, shop and talk a [...]
Start-up trends to watch as ‘new Japan’ emerges
As an online travel start-up myself – I started travel.jp, a meta-search site in Japan, 12 years ago – it’s been interesting to watch the evolution of the Japanese online start-up scene.Unlike the US, where Silicon Valley has been around for almost 40 years – so remember, it didn’t happen [...]
WIT Start-Up Pitch 2013: Call For Entries
At WIT Indonesia in March, a hotel meta-search, lagisatu.com with a halal filter, won our start-up competition. In Tokyo in May, Relux, a “satisfaction-guaranteed” online marketplace for Japanese inns – ryokans – walked away with the first prize. Who will win this October?Well, the answer [...]
Meet two women who want to change the way Asians travel
She took a leave of absence from her management consulting job at The Boston Consulting Group to learn Spanish in Argentina.It was one of her dreams. While there, she worked with a local entrepreneur– he ran a consumer packaged goods business and she thought she could help.She lived with locals, g [...]
Halal meta-search Lagisatu wins WIT Indonesia’s Start-Up Pitch
It’s the morning after. My head is swimming in data and ideas. On Wednesday, we spent a day immersed in trying to uncover the Indonesian travel story at the first WIT Indonesia – and what a diverse, interesting tale of quirks and opportunities which we will reveal, chapter by chapter, over the n [...]
