WIT Japan Start-Up Pitch winner of 2014, MyRealTrip, a Korea-based start-up specialising in tour & activities, has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Silicon Valley’s Altos Ventures to accelerate its global expansion.
Donggun Lee: Our goal is to match travellers with tour guides everywhere.
The company, started in 2012, raised KRW1 billion (approx US$840,000) in June last year fromSmilegate Investment and Capstone Partners. With this new funding round, MyRealTrip is ready to accelerate its growth with global business, said CEO Donggun Lee.
MyRealTrip provides a platform for local guides to design, register, and sell their own tours online. Fom March 2015, it also started to offer various kinds of travel products, such as tickets, passes, and activities in different cities.
According to Lee, MyRealTrip has put in solid performances by quadrupling its volume in comparison to August 2014, and is currently providing about 1,100 tours in 214 cities throughout the world. “The level of customer satisfaction appears very high as more than 7,000 positive reviews from actual travelers are accumulated,” he said.
“With this investment, we will be able to not only accelerate the growth of the outbound business but also offer a global service targeting foreign travelers.”
He told WIT, “’Matching travelers with tour guides everywhere’ is our ultimate goal. Our service is not just limited to Korea, but we plan to expand the service for people around the world. The global service we are about to launch soon will start from Asia for Engish- and Chinese-speaking travelers and as we grow bigger, it will expand beyond Asia to “everywhere”.”
He said the company has thus far liaised with local guides in six different cities in Asia (Seoul, Jeju, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Hualian). “As the initial service settles down and grows soon, we plan to reach out to more cities.”
He is targeting the global service to be ready by the end of August. “We already have registered local guides and tours in the cities, so when the website opens, travellers will be able to purchase tours right away. The website will be available in three languages: Korean, English, and Chinese. We are located in Seoul with a team of 19 people and have decided to operate our business in this office until we become too large to manage.”
Han Kim, CEO of Altos Ventures, said, “The size of Asian travel market is rapidly growing. I especially value highly the Tour & Activity sector, in which MyRealTrip is running its service. As the general mindset of travelers has been advancing, the importance of this particular area is being greatly emphasised. We decided to proceed with the investment since MyRealTrip is leading the market.”
MyRealTrip also won the Global Brain Award at Echelon 2015 Startup Pitch Singapore in June this year.
