Trambellir garnered interest from USEN reps at WiT Japan 2023, where Trambellir was featured in a startup showcase.
When we spoke to So Iizuka, founder and CEO of Trambellir, last year, his goal was to focus on growing his wellness platform in markets like Malaysia (HQ), Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Argentina.
Fast forward several months, and So’s startup has piqued the interest of USEN Next Holdings, a Japanese conglomerate engaged in the store service business and telecommunications, that now wants to move into travel, tours and attractions, with Trambellir acting as its partner and bookings platform. The two companies recently signed an MOU to form a strategic partnership and business alliance to jointly develop a Japan-based inbound platform for wellness activities and other attractions within the Japanese tourism space.
We caught up with So Iizuka to get into the details of the partnership and what this means for Trambellir’s operations.
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Q: First off, congratulations, So. What does this strategic partnership between USEN Next Holdings and Trambellir mean for both parties?
So: We will jointly develop another booking platform for wellness tourism activities in Japan, covering all major cities. Originally, USEN Next Holdings was doing business outside of travel for the last 50 or 60 years, including B2B music streaming services and SVOD streaming services. They also have IoT businesses.
This May, they decided to join the travel industry and created a ‘tourism design lab’ under the main holding company. They have ambitions to join the travel industry, especially focusing on the inbound market. Their strategy matched what we were doing – at WiT Japan, after I was on stage talking about Trambellir, the Managing Director of USEN dropped by our booth and we started the conversation [about this partnership].
Q: How will this influence your inventory and offerings on Trambellir?
So: Our inventory is 70% – 80% medical and wellness-related products. What USEN Next Holdings wants to do is expand those categories to a wider definition of wellness like zen, wellbeing, mindfulness, onsen hotsprings.
Trambellir can’t do it by ourselves, this quickly, to expand into markets like Japan. But USEN have these self-check-in kiosks, and they have a 70% market share in Japan, in terms of medical institutions and hotels. So, they have a wide range of connections with service providers. Plus, their main business is B2B music streaming for clients in the hospitality scene, including restaurants and spas.
That will help accelerate our inventory growth, especially in Japan.
Q: You are headquartered in Malaysia but you’re obviously very familiar with the Japanese market – what kind of challenges are you expecting?
So: Of course, there’s a language barrier. Smaller treatment providers might not know languages other than Japanese. That’s why international companies like Trambellir can be intermediaries to connect travellers to the Japanese market. We have a Japanese management team. To join the Japanese market, it’s very important to overcome the language barrier.
Another challenge is – service providers are open to work with big names like Booking.com or Agoda or Airbnb – but for startups, like a small Malaysian travel startup – there’s a mindset that we need to overcome. They may not be too open. But if they recognise that we’re managed by the Japanese and speak the same language and know the culture, that helps. Having a partnership with USEN, a large company, helps.
Q: Are more partnerships like this coming soon?
So: I am proud to announce that we’ve wrapped up a capital and business alliance with I&Co, led by Rei Inamoto (Creativity 50, the Top 25 most creative people in advertising) and Rem Reynolds, a creative agency firm in New York and Tokyo. Our products will be creatively enhanced, and our brand strategies will be improved by their resources. We are metamorphosing into a combination of OTA mixed with Generative AI, mixed with Edgy Creativity.
We will develop a new UI / UX and a new branding strategy with them, so our platform’s UI/UX design will be separate from our original platform and the one with USEN Next Holdings.
Q: Will a partnership of this scale change the way Trambellir operates in any way?
So: In the long term, we might create a headquarters or holding company in Japan if we really have to refocus on the Japan market. We’re keeping things flexible on the company structure right now. I won’t close the operations in Malaysia, many operations will be done in Malaysia, but with things like fundraising, we may need to think about how we can change the structure.
Q: Will this attract more investments for Trambellir?
So: At the moment, we haven’t been working on fundraising. We’re focusing on corporate business alliances. We prefer to work with enterprises, with corporates. It’s not the proper startup way – but I’ve been able to scale quickly, and our current strategy isn’t to seek VCs right now.
Headline image credit: ibtimes.sg
