Tink Labs could be on its way to become a billion dollar startup, and that too the first one from Hong Kong, reports Bloomberg. The company raised USD 125 million at a valuation of over USD 500 million in September last year from leading investors including Foxconn Technology Group. Now it is looking at another USD 40 million and a valuation of more than a billion USD.

Tink Labs addresses a major pain point of international travellers, roaming costs. CEO and founder Terence Kwok started with the idea five years ago and realised that airport wasn’t the best place to offer phone or data to travellers. He turned his head towards hotels which eventually evolved into what Tink Labs is today with its ‘Handy’ devices. Delivering the phones through hotels also added more opportunities while giving travellers what they want.

Handy phones are devices manufactured by Foxconn and run their own custom version of Android called Handy OS. While the travellers get a device (and unlimited calling minutes and data) with software tailored to what they might need including features local recommendations in multiple languages and direct line to hotel concierge, the hotels have a way to stay connected to their guests while offering more value against their competitors.

Handy’s features aren’t limited to the data, calling and local services. It also integrates deeper into the hotel systems to offer features like keyless door access, room service and control of in-room entertainment. Currently Tink Labs is on its way to reach a million rooms this year in hotels spread across Asia and Europe. The company is looking at new markets including US and Middle East for this year.

More details at handy.travel.

Source: Bloomberg

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Frequent travellers will tell you why it is a bad idea to get international travellers SIM card. Bearing roaming charges on your primary mobile phone isn’t a good idea either. Despite the increase in number of available options, getting a local SIM card seems to be the best option for staying connected during an international trip.

But then for most of us, the anxiety of travelling to a foreign country takes over. You will have to find a local provider once you reach your destination, choose from plans and get a SIM card. While it is a fairly simple process that we all are familiar with, just the fact that it is in an unfamiliar country deters us. That is why a Malaysian startup called Hello Roaming is trying to simplify things for international travellers.

Hello Roaming offers local prepaid SIM cars for multiple destinations. The SIM cards are delivered to you in advance so that you have your local SIM when you arrive. This way you can avoid the hassle of hunting for Wi-Fi networks or dealing with SIM card vendors at airport. This would also come handy if you aren’t familiar with the language of region you are travelling to.

The process is fairly simple. You go to their website, pick your destination, duration of trip, size of SIM and choose from the recommended SIM card options. Beyond that, the Hello Roaming team will take care of things and get it delivered to you in few business days.

“We started off wanting to solve this problem more sophisticatedly, involving some fancy tech. But after months of investigation and tinkering, we decided to go back to the drawing board after realising that the simplest and cheapest way to allow travellers to enjoy mobile internet-on-the-go was to offer travellers rates that the locals themselves use — through a prepaid SIM card by a local telco provider. It can’t get any cheaper than that.” said Serene Gan, Co-founder of Hello Roaming.

Talking about the target audience, Serene said, “We are targeting the everyday budget-conscious traveller who needs mobile internet; those who are reluctant to turn on their data roaming for fears of a hefty bill later on when they return home.  There are about more than 1 million Malaysians out there monthly who aren’t using their mobile phones as they normally would in fear of bill shocks later on when they return home. 80% of this pool of people fall within our target market.”

Speaking about the challenges faced in the process, Serene shared that the initial challenge was to understand the tariffs and rate plans for different providers as some countries have very complicated plans. It was also important to ensure that they meet the legal requirements for registration and activation of SIM cards.

They are actively working to streamline their supply chain so that they can fulfil orders quickly and more efficiently. Going forward they are looking to add top-up feature which would allow travellers to use the same number within the next few months without having to repurchase a SIM. Currently operational in Australia, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Indonesia, they are working to add 12 more countries into their inventory in the coming months.

You can find more details or order a local SIM for your next trip at www.helloroaming.com.

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With our connected lifestyle, we are more dependent on internet than ever. Business travellers need to stay connected while travelling to take care of their work and leisure travellers need it to share their experiences on social media and discover local content. Many startups are coming up to solve the connectivity problem for travellers with their innovative ideas. Skyroam is offering a smart solution for travellers in the form of a Wi-Fi hotspot that won’t require you to buy and insert SIM cards and can be used in over 70 countries. While switching to local carrier might appear to be an attractive proposition to someone travelling once a year, Skyroam presents a very strong case for itself for frequent travellers who travel to different countries. We had a chat with their team to know more about the product and their plans ahead:

What segment are you primarily targeting? Business travellers or leisure travellers?

While many older wifi hotspot products were built specifically for the always-at-work business traveller, more and more leisure travellers today rely on frequent and heavy data access to navigate, find things to do, and keep in touch with family and friends. We’re excited to deliver an amazing service that helps frequent global travellers, both business and leisure, stay connected while on the road.

Do you face any friction in the process of signing up local partners?

Establishing partnerships with carriers is one of the many challenging but rewarding tasks of building a global network. We work very successfully with nearly 100 carriers. A very important part of the value we offer our customers is the strong relationships with local carriers.

Your service works at HSPA+ at this point. Do you plan to move up to 4G anytime soon?

Since our product is aimed at delivering convenience to global travellers, we’ve optimized for maximum capability in as many countries as possible. We have chosen HSPA+ as our wireless technology because it’s the most widely-supported globally. As LTE becomes more widespread we’ll move in that direction.

Right now, the data plans offer limited 3G data. Do you plan to introduce plans to suit the soundcloud and netflix hungry travellers as well?

Yes. Our first service model is suited for frequent travellers as our core technology delivers a convenient, affordable way to stay connected from country to country while on the go. Second, we’re currently working on another service model to meet the needs of travellers who are also power users.

There are Wi-Fi hotspot devices available in the market for as low as $30. Many countries offer low cost SIM cards for travellers with 4-5 GB of 3G data at their international airports. Couple them together and one can have plenty of data on Wi-FI at low prices. How does Skyroam fare against that?

Our goal is to deliver consistent service, price and performance in over 70 countries.

We offer the best value and performance for the frequent traveller that crosses multiple borders as they travel throughout the year. For travellers that return to the same single location repeatedly, SIM card swapping or other WiFi devices may be a less expensive solution to their specific needs.

Our unique technology offers a more convenient way to stay connected around the world by bypassing the extra steps.

We try to balance price and convenience so we give you an on-demand option requiring no legwork.

What markets are you covering at this point?

We are the leading connectivity solution in China for outbound travellers. Our hotspot is available for purchase throughout the world. Thanks to our many partners, Skyroam Hotspot can be purchased at airports in the USA and Europe, pilot shops, global online retailers and even for in-flight.

Your perception of India as market for your offering.

The market in India is a great opportunity for us to bring together carrier partners in a regional setting. We take joy in keeping our customers connected and making hard to reach places more accessible to our customers.

Apart from the Wi-Fi device, do you plan to introduce traveller SIM cards without the device in future?

Skyroam’s virtual SIM is not a traveller’s SIM card as we know it, but a new SIM-less technology that can be manufactured into any Wi-Fi gadget. So we would not be introducing a traveller SIM card as we know it today, but something different.

Major technology players are moving away from the traditional SIM card model in search of flexibility. At this point, Skyroam’s vSIM comes into play – it’s a new technology that changes carriers over the air as you move from country to country. It can be enabled in any WiFi device, like a tablet or car GPS, and doesn’t require any steps to change SIMs, switch carriers or configure devices. It’s simply an on-demand, SIM-less technology. So after the hotspot, next comes embedding Skyroam’s vSIM software into devices to enable global connectivity.

It would be interesting to see how mobile operators try to woo travellers with innovative players like Skyroam entering the picture. You can know more about Skyroam or order a device for yourself through their website here.

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If you frequently travel abroad, you know the horror of shockingly high roaming costs added to your bill. From where we can remember, mobile networks have improved by miles and costs of services have reduced considerably. Even after that, roaming costs continue to be significantly high, even more so for international roaming. Many companies provide international SIM cards, but even those aren’t very cheap to use. In our recent visit to Echelon Summit, we came across some startups that are trying to solve this problem.

The first one we found interesting was Malaysia based Flexiroam. Flexiroam is a good alternative to international SIM cards and the traveller SIM cards that you can get at airports. It allows you to retain your phone number so you won’t have to notify your contacts about your temporary phone number or even let them know you are abroad. Over the years, they have improved upon their services and added new features.

Flexiroam team at Echelon Asia 2015

At this moment, Flexiroam is available for travellers from 9 countries and they plan to expand to India and China soon. The service can be used in around 200 countries and local SIM cards across multiple countries can be linked to it. They provide doorstep delivery of local SIM cards of over 40 countries before you travel so you can be prepared in advance. The voice calls are forwarded to your temporary local number via the Flexiroam gateway and the service can be enabled or disabled easily by sending text messages.

You can find more details about Flexiroam on their website http://www.flexiroam.com/.

Another company that caught our attention was Singapore based startup Gentay Communications with their app called Nanu. Nanu isn’t exactly a service focussed on serving international travellers but for everyone who needs an alternate to conventional voice calls. Nanu allows you to make unlimited calls to other Nanu users over mobile data and it works seamlessly over slow 2G networks as well. They claim that it can work at speeds as low as 10 Kbps and would offer high quality audio at over 24 Kbps so you can just pick any local SIM card with a basic data plan to use Nanu.

At first look, it appears to be just another app that is trying to go against the likes of Skype, Viber and recently introduced calling feature on WhatsApp, but there is more to it. You can also make free voice calls to people who aren’t using Nanu. You will hear ads from dialling to the time your call is answered and this helps them provide the service for free. At first you get just 15 minutes of calling and you can’t choose to buy more credits. However, there are multiple partner offers that you can complete to earn more minutes ranging from 2 to 202. They say that as the users grow in volume, they will be able to provide more free minutes and cover more countries.

You can know more about Nanu through their website http://www.hellonanu.com/. You can also download the Android or iOS app for your device.

We will keep updating you about other interesting startups at the Echelon Summit. You can read more by following the tag Echelon Asia 2015.

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