Bolder and better funded: Takaya plans global growth path for Reiwa
Former Relux founder takes lessons from India’s startup scene
Fresh from his first trip to India, Takaya Shinozuka, founder of Japanese online travel company, Reiwa Travel, is blown away by the dynamism of the market and the ambition of the travel startup founders he met.
“I spent five days, [...]
HalalTrip makes bid to go after next generation Muslim travellers
After 15 years of building CrescentRating, Fazal takes plunge into consumer waters
After launching CrescentRating in 2008 to rate hotels, and building up a solid research, advisory and consultancy business around halal travel, founder Fazal Bahardeen is ready to plunge into the competitive waters o [...]
Post-IPO, Tripla moves to consolidate in hospitality tech with three acquisitions
“Big chance for a startup like us to consolidate”: Kazuhisa Takahashi
Life after IPO in 2022 hasn’t changed that much for tripla’s CEO and co-founder Kazuhisa Takahashi, although he admits that for the first six months after listing in the Growth Market section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, [...]
Travelwings, now in 27 African countries, seeks to transform continent
Local payments the door opener to continent’s e-commerce potential, says CEO Albert Fernando
As the founder and CEO of Travelwings, Africa’s leading online travel agency, Albert Fernando’s dream is to create new job opportunities in travel and e-commerce across the continent.
“There are [...]
Mistletoe grows; new αFund seeks to raise $300m-$400m for positive impact investments
Fund started by Taizo Son and Atsushi Tarai buys SoftBank Ventures, aims to build ecosystem of “like-minded investors and founders”
After eight years of running the global seed stage innovation driven impact vehicle, Mistletoe, as a family fund, co-founders Atsushi Taira and Taizo Son are rea [...]
Rabbit R1 and its impact on Tours and Activities
The debate continues on its implications in wider tech and travel space
Read Part 1 of Travel Pros React to the Rabbit R1 here.
Earlier this month, tech startup Rabbit made waves with the launch of its R1, a pocket-sized AI assistant designed to do daily ‘smartphone tasks’ without the use [...]
MyRealTrip raises $56m in new fund raise to continue transformation to travel superapp
It’s good news for the tours and activities as well as APAC travel market as Korea-based MyRealTrip announced a raise of $56.7 million (75.6 billion KRW) in a Series F equity round of funding to accelerate its business and product innovation and ramp up its hiring.
This follows the $210m raise [...]
Tribe Tours Singapore goes all in on accessibility and automation
Pilot tours on Sentosa and automation to consolidate bookings from multiple sources to streamline operations.
With inbound travel expected to soften to Singapore this year, due to the strong currency, stiffer competition and higher costs of living, one of the city state’s leading tour companies, [...]
AI platform translates hotel guests’ speech into actionable data and insights
“AI is just a component the software. Application is the most important.”
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence in both travel and hospitality isn’t particularly new - many tech platforms and service providers have been utilising AI behind-the-scenes for years now. But the emergence and rap [...]
Hindsight is 2023: Our Top 12 posts of the year
2024 is right around the bend, and we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight our most popular posts of the year.
While it's fun to look back at what interested our readers and community the most this year, chronicling our most read articles is also a way to gain insight into what travel prof [...]
