Softinn Solutions, a travel technology company offering a cloud-based hotel reservation system for small to medium hotels, is the proud victor of the 2017 WIT Japan & North Asia Start-up Pitch, powered by Amadeus Next.
The Malaysia-based startup has won: a ticket to Web In Travel’s landmark WIT 2017 Conference in Singapore this October, a ticket to the Phocuswright Conference in Florida this November, as well as access to Amadeus Next’s expert network.
Facing six other teams in the semi-finals during the WIT Japan & North Asia Bootcamp on June 8, Softinn emerged triumphant at the Grand Finals on June 9, beating two other finalists: Japan Foodie (a restaurant reservations and QR payment solution for tourists in Japan) and Alleys Wonderlab (a crowdsourced street video map for virtual tours).
“The WIT Startup Pitch was an excellent platform for us to introduce Softinn to international conference delegates and judges. We admit it was not easy when we were up against startups from Japan, Korea and other countries but we gave our best. We are glad that esteemed judges have picked us as the winner,” said Softinn’s founder Jason JeeShen Lee.
Softinn founder, Jason JeeShen Lee
Softinn was praised by Yeoh Siew Hoon (founder, Web In Travel) for its foresight into what their service could offer not just their product but what it could do for travellers as well as small to medium-sized businesses.
To date, Softinn serves over 250 hotel brands (capturing over 800 hotel properties, across Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam), filling over 13,000 room nights and generating roughly US$1m worth in direct bookings.
“That they’ve been able to execute so well and grow their business despite being bootstrapped from the start – their presentation showed they’ve managed so far with only US$225,000 in funding – is impressive and shows the determination and passion of the founders,” said Yeoh.
Lead judge, Simon Akeroyd (Vice President – Corporate Strategy, Amadeus Asia Pacific) added, “What stood out about Softinn during the pitch was their dedication towards perfecting their product. They took feedback seriously and built on it. In fact, one of the reasons they won was because they showed the biggest improvement over the course of the Pitch. We look forward to helping them develop their ideas and grow their business through our mentorship programme.
“One of the things I love most about my job is being able to see new, engaged startups pitching their solutions and hearing about what problems in travel they’re looking to solve. WIT Japan & North Asia saw some interesting ideas being put forward to solve the challenge of aggregating fragmented, long-tail content during the on-trip phase of travel,” Akeroyd added.
This year’s WIT Start-up Pitch saw a record-breaking number of 32 submissions from 12 countries.
The semi-finalists and eventual finalists were narrowed down by a team of 10 judges, including: Simon Akeroyd (Vice President – Corporate Strategy, Amadeus Asia Pacific), Aya Yamato (Manager, Travel Investment, Recruit), Greg Schulze (Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy, Expedia), Kei Shibata (CEO, Venture Republic/Travel.jp), Zhou Shiwei (Vice President, Investments and Investor Relations, Ctrip), Emi Takemura (Advisor, Peatix & Fellow, Mistletoe), Terry Hayashiguchi (Managing Director, DG Incubation Inc.), Ted Cho (Principal Entrepreneur, Skelter Labs), Phil Wickham (Founder and General Partner, Sozo Ventures) and Timothy Hughes (Vice President, Business Development, Agoda).
