The below story is from our series of startups spotted at the RTM Forum in Taipei. One such startup is airConcur, which helps airline passengers to request compensation for flight delay or cancellation. The startup which is targeting outbound flyers from Asia entitles them up to a maximum of 600 Euros for compensation. We spoke to the co-founders on the startup’s journey so far, here’s a brief from the conversation.

• Briefly explain the problem airConcur is solving 

airConcur Inc. founded in 2018, is the first flight compensation organization in Asia. We help Asian passengers whose EU flights are delayed or cancelled; the claim is up to 600 Euros. The core value of AirConcur is to help Asian air passengers acknowledge their rights and able to claim for compensation on transportation disruption under EU Regulation. airConcur has a professional legal team from Europe and successful claims are getting higher.

• What made you think of the idea

Our team is from online travel industry, we constantly observe changes in the online travel market, we figured out “after the tour period” market has big potential.

Therefore, we found the law of tourism in europe, especially transportation, we have a chance to try, research and founded airConcur Inc. Every year there are nearly twenty millions of EU-bond passengers from Asia and this is where we start the whole service here, helping them deal with transportation disruptions, and entitle to ticket refund and compensation. We not only provide airline compensation service but also train, rail, bus and ferry in the near future. airConcur comes out with JaaS(Justice as a Service) a travel law solution platform which will provide passengers and TA&OTA an integrated solution, solve these problems for more passengers.

• Which market/markets are you targeting

Whole Asia, mainly our focus is on East Asia and India, our service has expanded significantly to China, Japa, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. Korea and India is our next target this year. Our mission is to help passengers in Asia fight for their rights.

• How many customers do you have

In about a year, we have received over one thousand claims in Taiwan, it’s all individual customers, around 30% for flight delays, 40% for flight cancellation, and 30% for strikes. we expect it will be big growth after we cooperate with OTAs by Jaas system.

• Are you bootstrapped or raised funds

As of now, all the 3 co-founders have invested in the venture

• What is your background 

We are all from Internet companies, having experience in the travel industry with stints at KKday, which is Asia’s largest tours and activities platform.  Especially our CEO Dean, is a serial entrepreneur, also successfully sold out his company (Niceday) and sold it to Taiwan’s IPO company. In a nutshell, we know the travel industry very well.

Ｍoreover, our team has expertise on big data, we try to innovate on applying process and flight detection. Now we are developing the JaaS (Justice as a Service), a travel law solution platform which will provide passengers and TA&OTA an integrated solution, solve these problems for more passengers.

• How is the Travel startup ecosystem in Taiwan like 

Along with increase in Outbound Tourists on an annual basis, more and more entrepreneurs and startups focus on the subject, most startups are trying to build platforms such as booking or other service of airlines, hotels and T&A. Now more startups provide holistic solutions or some tools for the travel industry. But there are some concerns, some international platforms such as Booking.com, Klook, Line travel, are grabbing the market share with their abundant resources. Taiwan companies have to connect with more partners in-order to ward off global competition and that is the biggest challenge.

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We first spoke with Steve about six months ago, when he shared with us the journey of OWNRIDES, an online driver booking platform for tourists. The Taiwanese startup Generated GMV close to 1m SGD in 2018 since its launch. We spoke to Steve again,  a graduate from Singapore Management University to learn more about the startup.

How did it all start
We first had the idea of an “Airbnb for driver-guides” in late 2016 but quickly found there isn’t much difference from one driver to another driver for this marketplace model to work. We then changed the idea to a “Uber for custom tours”, launched the new marketplace in April 2017 and achieved 54% monthly average growth in the first 6 months.

How is the self-drive rental market in Taiwan
Self-driving is not popular with international tourists in Taiwan. Notorious drivers, complicated traffic rules and confusing road signs (written in traditional Chinese) all make self-driving in Taiwan intimidating for international tourists. For domestic tourists, they either drive their own cars or they travel with families and friends who drive. So the car rental market is not big in
Taiwan.
Who are your real customers – Locals or Overseas tourists
Our customers are international tourists, mostly from Singapore, Malaysia, US and Philippines but also from Japan, South Korea, India and even Saudi Arabia. We have very few Taiwanese customers since they have no problem traveling around Taiwan on their own.

What are some of the use-cases of customers using Ownrides
Our customers do not want the “one-size-fits-all” tour packages that OTAs provide so they use OWNRIDES to plan and book their own custom tours. One very memorable trip was by a customer from Hong Kong who traveled directly to Yushan Mountain from Taoyuan International Airport in the early morning, climbed to the peak of the mountain within a day, and returned to Chiayi City by the night. Another custom tour was by a customer from Germany who came on a cruise ship and visited both landmarks in Taipei City and scenic spots along Taiwan’s northeast coast. In all cases, our customers can plan their tours on our platform, get price quoted instantly and book them within minutes.

On fundraising

We raised a small amount of funding from 2 angel investors in the beginning but are entirely self-funded since.

What are some of the roadblocks for your startup
One major roadblock was the regulation in Taiwan. Uber was fined in Taiwan for providing non-professional drivers and we had to scrap our plan to provide these drivers whom we spent 2 months recruiting but did not want to risk getting caught in the crossfire. Another major roadblock was the regulation again but it was the regulation in South Korea and not Taiwan. We found South Korea very similar to Taiwan but because we use Google Maps for data and South Korea restricts these data, we are not able to expand to South Korea yet.

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