Myanmar-based OTA, FlyMya has emerged as this year’s winner of the WiT Japan & North Asia Startup Pitch powered by Amadeus, held last week in Tokyo. Flymya was also the winner of the People’s Choice Award by popular vote.
As this year’s victor, FlyMya have won tickets to attend WiT Singapore 2019 on October 14-16, and up to US$100,000 in angel funding by three Japanese investors – Kei Shibata (CEO, Venture Republic), Kenichi Shibata (COO, Venture Republic) and Ken Mishima (Head of eCommerce Strategy, Web Sales & Marketing Division, JTB) – to be privately negotiated between them.
FlyMya offers travellers a range of domestic flights, tours, cruises, and car rentals to over 20 destinations within Myanmar. It acts as an “all-in-one search engine” to help travellers book trips to and within the country at the best available rates.
FlyMya beat eight travel startup semi-finalists during the WiT Innovation Stage on July 4, qualifying as one of three finalists, alongside Amuse Travel and IntheHood.
Amuse Travel is a Korea-based tour operator, offering “accessible tours” to travellers with special needs or those facing disabilities. Meanwhile, IntheHood is a Japan-based private accommodation provider offering apartments in select Tokyo neighbourhoods and organising community events for international travellers.
During the winner’s announcement, lead judge Sebastien Gibergues, (VP Online Travel Asia Pacific, Amadeus) commented, “This event was very rich in creative ideas that are trying to break new frontiers in travel… all participants really improved their pitch from [the semi-finals] displaying their commitment to this.”
The competition was judged by a group of ten travel industry figures that offered their expertise and perspectives, scoring the contestants on viability, sustainability, customer appeal, scalability, quality of the team and ‘the X factor’. They were also assessed on their level of improvement between the semi-finals round and the Grand Finals, following an initial round of feedback. The judges included:
- Kazushi Sano, Managing Director, Cool Japan Fund
- Kenichi Shibata, COO, Venture Republic
- Margaret Feng, Head of Oasis Lab, Ctrip
- Phil Wickham, Managing Director, Sozo Ventures
- Rod Cuthbert, Board Member, VELTRA Corp; Former Chairman & CEO, Viator & Rome2rio
- Sebastien Gibergues, Vice President Online Travel Asia Pacific, Amadeus
- Shinichi Takamiya, Managing Partner, Globis Capital Partners
- Timothy Hughes, Vice President Corporate Development, Agoda
- Wilfred Fan, Chief Commercial Officer, Klook
- Joanna Ibrahim, Senior Investment Manager (Americas), AirAsia
The next WiT Startup Pitch taking place at WiT Singapore 2019 (October 14-16) is currently open for submissions. It is open to startups between 0-5 years old that believe they’re onto the next groundbreaking business idea in travel.
Enter now. Deadline: 16 August 2019
