Three men and a restaurant payments app called Spades
How a summer holiday in France led to “Scan, Split, Tip, Pay” and expansion beyond Dubai
IT was during a summer holiday in France when Sameer Poonja and his two mates used the Sunday app, the French payments app for restaurants, and a light bulb came on.
The Dubai-based Poonja, who formerly [...]
Pandemic boom in fitness gives RunGo wings to fly
WiT Startup Pitch 2021 finalist RunGo, described as the “#1 running app for discovering the best routes in the world”, is hoping to tap into the pandemic-induced craze of running, walking and general wellness and fitness trends to fuel the next lap in its startup journey.
Noah Bloom was [...]
From fighting to reopen to leading the way in tech innovation, Asia travel puts its best foot forward
Key takeaways from WiT Experience Singapore 2021
IT’S been a tradition of past WiTs that a group of us would escape to a remote location or island somewhere to mark the end of yet another event. Over the years, we’ve been to Siem Reap, Bali, Phuket, Samui, Penang, Kuching with Nikoi and Cemp [...]
Jost: Quality remains undervalued as a hard data point in hotel pricing
TrustYou expands beyond hospitality, evaluates remote/hybrid work model
EVEN though the space of hotel reviews and sentiment analysis has been around for about 15 years – Circos Brand Karma was founded in 2006, TrustYou in 2008 and Revinate 2009, just to cite a few of the startups in this sect [...]
FCM takes stake in Japan’s NSF Engagement as it prepares for corporate travel rebound
VTL to Germany sparks “let's go gold rush” from German customers in Singapore, says Saillet
WHILE corporate travel in Asia remains grounded for the most part, there are clearly opportunities to be seized and this week, FCM put deeper roots into the Japanese market by taking a majority stake [...]
ixigo’s road to profitability and IPO – how it did it and the future of bus and rail
FROM the start when Covid first struck, it was inevitable the road ixigo would take to raise future funds – via an IPO. CEO and Co-founder Aloke Bajpai hinted at this during a wide-ranging interview with WiT around this time last year.
When asked what was one of the positives that had emerged [...]
Mystifly extends flights platform to non-travel brands, creates new call centre business
“We survived, now ready to thrive,” says Rajeev Kumar on 12th (no, second) anniversary
IT may be Mystifly’s 12th anniversary but to founder Rajeev Kumar and co-founder Bharat Goyal, it feels more like its second year “because we went back to zero” when the pandemic devastated its B2B f [...]
A hotel giant talks sharing, caring and loving Asia
From selling groceries in Santo Domingo to CapitaLand in Singapore, Miguel Ko has had a remarkable journey to the top
IT was a love affair that started in 1979, and even though he left hospitality per se in 2012, after departing from Starwood, Miguel Ko always kept his ties with the industry. Th [...]
Ahead of G7 Summit, IATA urges governments to use data to liberate travel
Cites medical findings, Airbus, Boeing modelling of risks
THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged governments to make data-driven decisions to manage the risks of COVID-19 when reopening borders to international travel. Strategies without quarantine measures can enable internati [...]
Webb: Recovery won’t be online vs offline, it will be driven by policy
Travelport doubles down on tech to simplify next gen retailing for recovery
FOR Greg Webb, CEO of Travelport, pushing ahead with its next generation platform – a commitment it made in 2019 when it went private – was absolutely necessary despite the pandemic crushing the travel industry and a [...]
