Seek Sophie, the Singapore experiences marketplace, listed its first China supply on 14 September 2026: 25 community-led experiences, all in Yunnan province. The listing came after roughly a year of sustained requests from its community and three multi-week scouting trips to the province, TTG Asia reported. Nothing went live until the team had walked the routes itself.

That sequence is the company’s method, not a one-off. Seek Sophie describes itself on its own site as “a marketplace, but a highly curated one”, with the founders going on the ground to test experiences and screening each one for its benefit to local communities and wildlife. The team, the site says, is “scattered across Asia”.

How it started

Co-founder and CEO Jacinta Lim was previously an executive manager at the insurtech MicroEnsure. Co-founder Lina Gedvilaite was an investment analyst at the International Finance Corporation in Ukraine. The two met during an MBA in 2016 and, as Vulcan Post reported, launched the platform with about 260 listings across Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia. Every listing had been personally tested by the founders, who spent at least two months in each country sourcing supply before the platform opened.

What the Yunnan set looks like

The 25 experiences are built around local hosts rather than a coach itinerary. There is a Tiger Leaping Gorge route led by Naxi guide Nong Bu, a Yunnan speciality coffee experience, and a three-day, two-night Tea Horse Road caravan in Shangri-La with Tibetan guides and glamping. The wildlife tracking is run by former hunters who now work as forest rangers protecting the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey.

Lim frames the curation as a position on capacity rather than a marketing line. “For us, preventing overtourism is really about shaping tourism before a place gets overwhelmed,” she told TTG Asia. A year of demand, three scouting trips and 25 listings is a slow pace by marketplace standards. The company lists what its founders have tested, not what a supplier uploads.

The MICE corporate line

The consumer marketplace is not the only revenue line. Seek Sophie’s corporate business already serves Meta, Google, Disney and ByteDance, and the company is now pushing into international corporate events, TTGmice reported in July. Inbound corporate groups are estimated at 10 to 20 per cent of its overall corporate business.

Lim’s pitch to planners is direct. “Singapore only feels boring if you experience it in the usual corporate way: convention centre, mall, hotel restaurant,” she said. The heritage-led formats the company runs for consumers are being packaged for teams and incentive groups, which gives the curation work a second buyer.

The next twelve months

China is the expansion market. Lim named Sichuan, Chongqing and Xinjiang as the next markets after Yunnan, and the company’s record points to the same treatment for each: sustained demand from the community first, multiple scouting trips second, listings last. On the corporate side, the push into international events puts Seek Sophie in front of the MICE buyers who bring groups into Singapore and increasingly want the same curation when the group travels out.

Travel founders with a story of their own can share it with TravHQ through the site’s contact page.

Key takeaway

Volume marketplaces compete on listing count, and Seek Sophie is betting on the opposite. Its China entry shows what that bet costs: a year of waiting and three scouting trips for 25 listings. For OTAs and DMCs, the lesson is that curated supply in a new market is a scouting budget before it is a catalogue, and for tourism boards in Sichuan, Chongqing and Xinjiang, a curator that screens for community benefit is worth courting before the coaches arrive. We would watch the corporate line most closely, because it is the part of the business that turns curation into repeat orders.

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Last week we were at the OTM Forum 2019 in Mumbai, which is among the top rated travel tech events in India. This year’s event focussed on innovative business strategies and emerging technologies in the travel industry. This year’s forum curated by TravHQ in association with OTM team witnessed some of the hottest names in travel from Facebook, Kayak, Twitter, Booking, Lonely Planet, Indigo, Air Asia, National Geographic Expeditions, Jio Studios and many more.

The Panel on Digital Marketing and Social Media in Travel: Featuring Rachit Uppal, Head of Industry (India & South Asia), Twitter, Saurav Chakraborty Industry Manager (Travel), Facebook India, Abhijit Mishra Director, India & Middle East, Kayak and Girish Singh Head of Marketing APAC, Uber for Business and Daksh Sharma from TravHQ

The Panel on Influencer Marketing and its Role in the Travel Path-to-Purchase featuring Hitesh Rajwani, Sharanya Iyer, Priyanka Chandola,  Ajay Awtaney and Varun Vagish 

The Panel on Opportunities in Indian aviation – Making it big in the world’s most challenging aviation market featuring Chetan Kapoor Research Analyst – Asia-Pacific, Phocuswright Inc., Rajkumar Paranthaman Head of Marketing – India, AirAsia, Raj Sivakumar Senior Vice President – Network & Revenue Management, Jet Airways, Salim Khan Chief Security Officer (Specialist) – India, Emirates and Nitin Sethi – Vice President Digital @ Indigo

Naveen Perla COO, JetSetGo, Ruchi Lahoti Area Manager – India, Booking.com, Maitreyee Das Banerjee, Head of Marketing, Keys Hotel (Berggruen Group) and Todor Gerovski COO, 15toGO with Daksh Sharma in the Panel on How Millennials will Travel in 2019

The Panel on Future of Travel Content Marketing featuring Sesh Seshadri General Manager, Lonely Planet India, Abraham Alapatt President & Group Head – Marketing, Thomas Cook India, Bhawna Grover Head of Content, GoIbibo, Daniel Cheng Founder & President, RTM – Redefine Tourism Mixer and Daksh Sharma from TravHQ

Stay tuned as we bring you more updates, highlights and videos from the proceedings in OTM Forum 2019

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During the last couple of years, Taiwan has demonstrated immense potential with its contribution towards the growth of startups in the APAC region. Taiwan, which was once largely recognized as hardware manufacturing hub in Asia, now finds itself in a startup race lead by Singapore and Hong Kong. The boom in growth has been pioneered by Taiwan Startup Stadium, located in downtown Taipei and helping startups to go global.

While KKday has been one of the most famous Taiwanese travel startups, there are other the travel startups too that have been doing the fund raising rounds. Here is a look at some of the prominent Taiwanese travel startups:

MyTaiwanTour

MyTaiwanTour which provides personalized and customized tour packages to overseas tourists from US and Europe markets last month raised US$1.5M from Sanpu Group which would aid in expansion to Japan and China.

KKday

Launched in 2015, KKday operates in the highly competitive tours & activities space. During the beginning of January, KKday had raised a Series B $10.5 million round led by Japanese travel operator H.I.S. In addition, last month the travel startup had raised an undisclosed round by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba and Japanese chat app company Line primarily to contribute to its growth in China and Japan.

FunNow

FunNow, is another Taiwanese startup in the space of entertainment and leisure activities. It secured a $5 million round in Series A funding led by Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund. With over 500,000 members, FunNow has over 3,000 vendors providing more than 20,000 activities.

AsiaYo

Last week, AsiaYo, a travel accommodation booking platform based in Taipei, Taiwan, raised $7 million Series B round which was led by Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund. With approximately, more than 60,000 rooms listings and over 600,000+ bookings AsiaYo is competing with Airbnb in the competitive alternate accommodation space.

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Hotel-booking startup Oyo is raising $1 billion to fund expansion into China and other global regions.

Existing investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners have put in $800 million, with commitments for another $200 million, the company said.

About $600 million of the total will be plowed into China where Oyo began operations only 10 months ago. According to reports, the funding values the startup at $5 billion.

Ritesh Agarwal, founded Oyo five years after travelling around India on a shoestring budget. He discovered wildly unpredictable standards for hotels and guest houses, and decided to start an online service to bring more reliability to the travel experience. In the past two years, Oyo has expanded beyond India into China, Malaysia, Nepal and Britain.

OYO Founder Ritesh Agarwal

“With this additional funding, we plan to rapidly scale our business in these countries, while continuing to invest further in technology and talent,” Agarwal said in the statement. “We will also deploy fresh capital to take our unique model that enables small hotel owners to create quality living spaces, global.”

His startup, whose official name is Oravel Stays Pvt, signs on hotel owners and then gets them to upgrade everything from linen, toiletries and bathroom fittings to its specifications. It also equips hotels with staff training and standardized supplies. It then brings them on board its hotel website, and hotel owners pay Oyo a certain percent commission.

“Budget travellers are consistently shortchanged by the lack of trust, quality, and consistency,” said Bejul Somaia, managing director of Lightspeed India, explaining that Oyo can change that dynamic.

At a $5 billion valuation, Oyo would be India’s most-valuable startup after One97 Communications. The domestic hotel industry includes large chains with dependable hospitality experiences at the mid to top end. But the business also includes thousands of unbranded, ramshackle hotels and lodges with broken beds, yellowing linen and stinking bathrooms. Oyo is trying to make hotels easier to find through its site and more predictable as well.

Its criteria are exacting — from the thickness of the mattress to the placement of the light switches to the size of the showerhead in the bathroom. Agarwal has said that he wants the Oyo brand to convey a superior experience.

Oyo began with one hotel in Gurgaon and has grown to 1,25,000 rooms in India, where it says it’s tripling year-over-year in terms of transactions. In China, where it began operations last November, it has expanded to 171 cities with 87,000 rooms. It is now in over 350 cities with 2,11,000 rooms.

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Imagine you’ve checked out of your hotel and now have a couple of hours to kill in a foreign city before you take the next flight out. But suddenly you realize that you have two heavy suitcases to lug around, and give up on the idea of exploring. Then there is also the hassle of carrying all that stuff for your month-long vacation. What about that extra baggage that you know airlines will charge you for?

Not anymore. A trolley-load of new luggage services have appeared in recent years, trying to disrupt a staid market with promises of revolutionary ways to carry, or not carry, that dreaded suitcase.

Dubz

Dubz is a luggage pickup, storage and delivery service in Dubai, offering travelers time and comfort by getting bags picked up or dropped off, stored, and even checked in! Through the DUBZ website, travellers can arrange a pick-up, and have their luggage checked in and collected by a dnata agent from their home or hotel anywhere in Dubai, allowing travelers to then enjoy their day baggage-free. Users can then save time by skipping baggage drop-off and check-in queues at the airport, with their boarding pass and baggage tags provided on the spot.

Airportr

Based in London since 2014, Airportr picks up luggage anywhere inside the M25, and drops it off at either Gatwick or Heathrow airports. In 2016 in London, they launched Bag Check-In with British Airways. They moved the bag drop desk online, allowing travellers to give luggage to their professional drivers at their front door. So now, when travellers fly with one of their partner airlines, they can check in bags on the doorstep. No time-wasting. No lugging. No stressing.

LugLess

The startup’s tag line “travel without the baggage” is appropriate. LugLess is a travel agent for luggage. They are a door-to-door luggage shipping service that picks up a traveller’s luggage from their home, office, or hotel and sends it directly to wherever they are going ahead of time anywhere in USA and over 200 countries worldwide. They allow customers to bypass baggage fees, waiting in check-in lines, help them go through security faster, and help them avoid baggage claim and prospect of lost luggage. They are also sometimes less expensive that what airlines charge on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th bag for baggage fees.

Bagshuttle

This German startup picks up a traveller’s luggage from their desired address and has it delivered wherever they want. Simply enter your destination, make the payment
and you´ll receive your personal Bagshuttle confirmation. Upon arrival, they pick up your luggage personally or store it at their partners´ storage locations. When departing, they pick up your luggage from the desired address. Travellers can then go on bag-free to a business meeting or on a sightseeing tour. Meanwhile, Bagshuttle picks up your luggage and delivers it to your desired destination.

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Asia is definitely set to take the travel industry by the horns. Tourist spending in the Asia-Pacific region is on a rising spree and continues to outgrow other regions in the world. In 2017, Asia-Pacific recorded a six percent growth, with 324 million international tourist arrivals. The growth is also expected to continue in 2018 at a rate of five to six percent.

Driven by a robust economic upswing and increased demand, many startups in the region are also making waves in the travel industry. With tech-driven differentiation, these startups, both big and small, are leveraging the boom in many different ways. Here is our top pick of some of the coolest startups.

1. Hotelogix, India

Many hotel groups in India run server-based management systems at their properties and lack centralized control at the corporate level. But not Hotelogix. With a mission to revamp the way the hospitality industry uses technology, Hotelogix aims at assisting hoteliers conquer the ever-changing hospitality landscape. What sets it apart from other PMS systems is the seamless flow of data. Cloud enables collecting data from multiple sources in real-time, giving you the ability to analyse this data in the moment. Recently, Hotelogix was recognized as a ‘FrontRunner’ in the hotel management category for enterprise vendors by Software Advice, powered by Gartner methodology.

2. RedDoorz, Indonesia

Launched in 2015, RedDoorz is a network of budget branded lodging, with more than 500 properties primarily in Indonesia, and also in Singapore and the Philippines. This year, it closed $11 million in new funding to expand its network of budget hotels and guest houses throughout the Southeast Asian region. As it stands in Indonesia, where RedDoorz has been the longest and where it has most of its properties — it claims to offer 3,000 rooms across 16 cities — the vast majority of customers are local and using the company’s Android app, rather than the tourist crowd. Some booking platforms are trying to creatively improvise their services by innovating around evolving customer needs, such as speed of booking, that RedDoorz particularly focuses on. The RedDoorz website is optimised to ensure that the booking form is displayed prominently on the landing page, which keeps guests focused on completing their booking.

3. Travelog, Malaysia

Built to be a one-stop shop for travellers in Malaysia and abroad, Travelog aims to make the process of researching and planning for itineraries easier for every traveller type.
Through the startup’s website, users are not only able to scan through an extensive list of travel activities, tour packages, and accommodations, but also avail weekly flash sales of up to 70 percent off booking prices. To make things even easier, users are not charged anything for the use of Travelog’s services. Within just one platform, travellers have access to a well-curated showcase of the startup’s hand-picked travel experiences.

4. GOeureka, Singapore

Blockchain is emerging as a strong technology tool that is all set to change the status quo of the travel industry. Banking on its subsequent adoption and tremendous growth potential, Singapore-based GOeureka is planning to launch their online hotel booking platform at the end of 2018, which will be utilising blockchain technology to deliver an industry-first solution that will disrupt the current OTA business model. This next-gen solution that will shape the future of online booking, will be built on top of the Ethereum platform, an open software platform based on blockchain technology that enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications. GOeureka will challenge the status quo by removing hefty OTA commissions paid by hotels.

5. Concierge.io, Vietnam

Concierge.io, with its decentralized travel booking marketplace that utilizes the NEO blockchain, reduces third party interaction, whilst pledging a transparent operational process. The platform connects consumers directly with vendors to discuss their deals with no fee or commission associated. The Concierge.io marketplace UI (User-Interface) and UE (User-Experience) have been designed to give as much accessibility to both the vendor and consumers. The platform utilizes specific API’s to enable speed of transferring listings from other platforms providing maximum efficiency. Traditional payment methods like Visa/Master Card will be an option with top cryptocurrencies also added in due course.

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The Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) – which features a startup accelerator and a separate market access programme – will support 10 innovative travel and hospitality companies this year.

Launched two years ago, the innovation programme aims to identify and support high-growth travel and hospitality businesses that have potential to contribute positively to local communities, economies, and the environment. It is jointly supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australian government and six-government Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MCTO).

Five local entrepreneurs from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam earned spots in the MIST Startup Accelerator programme, which teaches business fundamentals to early-stage travel and hospitality startups.

The five startups are: BambooLao (Laos), which produces reusable bamboo straws; Ecohost (Vietnam), which aims to improve local homestay management and activities; Go Explore (Vietnam), which organises “workation” programmes aimed at international and domestic remote workers; Sidesbag (Cambodia), which enables airline passengers to purchase luggage allowance from fellow travellers; and VDEs (Vietnam), which connects event planners with event venues.

The Startup Accelerator finalists will reconvene in October, concurrent with ITB Asia in Singapore, to compete for innovation grants up to US$10,000.

MIST has also selected five companies to join its Market Access programme, which invites innovators from around the world to solve tourism and hospitality industry challenges in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The programme helps innovators clear market entry obstacles, form local partnerships and secure financing for proof-of-concept pilots.

The five companies chosen are: Adventoro, a bookable directory of bucket-list worthy activities including whitewater rafting, jungle treks and diving excursions; DidaTravel Technology, which offers backend technology for hotel booking, providing real-time inventory and rates; hereO, creator of the heroO GPS watch for kids, and offers plug-and-play IoT technology; Moneybay, which provides a digital cross-border currency exchange platform; and Monkey Theory, which offers branded sporting events.

“There is no doubt that technology is rapidly transforming travel. The trick is to harness and accelerate innovative business models that also positively transform lives, communities and the natural environment,” said Jens Thraenhart, executive director of MCTO.

“MIST has received more than 350 applications from all over the world, demonstrating the GMS’ dynamism as a destination and its attractiveness to innovators,” added Dominic Mellor, senior investment advisor for the ADB.

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On the back of a fast growing economy and rising income levels, a significant portion of wealth being spent by Indians is now on traveling and vacationing abroad. As a result, the travel and tourism industry sector is on the path to adding $160 billion to the GDP by 2026.

To address the increasing number of Indians travelling, numerous startups have also emerged to meet their demands. The Indian startup sector is buoyant as entrepreneurs are racing to provide services for the country’s online population.

Here are our top travel startup picks for the month:

1. WanderGupt – infusing mystery into travel

Jatin Adlakhia is a strong proponent of experiential travel, an idea gaining ground in the West but largely unexplored in India. Having been a traveller for four years, one thing he felt very bad about was the fact that people were working even on a vacation – professional work, or personal, or planning the itinerary. Through his startup WanderGupt, Jatin is promoting tours where only a rough sketch of the itinerary is given to travellers. The destinations are all kept secret and the emphasis is on getting a feel of the place before moving on to the next.

Jatin says he believes that homestays, village tours, meaningful interaction with locals, travel games and long walks are all needed to explore a place in all its beauty, which takes at least one week at every place. His startup lines up ‘gupt’ (secret) trips for large groups of people to different parts of the country.

2. Mihuru – making travel easy on the pockets

Mihuru, a travel fintech startup based in Mumbai, is an easy and convenient way for travellers to pay for their flight tickets in EMIs, without needing a credit card or credit scores.

Mihuru, which means ‘My Freedom’, aims to help Indians, especially the generation of millennial travellers, travel more often and more freely, without worrying about large upfront costs associated with flight tickets. Helmed by Shruti Mehrotra and her co-founder and advisor, Jonathan Nunez Gonzalez, Mihuru is the first company in India to enable travellers to book their flights with a deposit of just around 20% upfront and pay the balance in installments before they fly.

The startup has also adopted a unique method of assessing the credibility of their customers before providing them with instant credit for booking their flight tickets. The evaluation is done by a close observation of the digital footprint of the customer and a simple psychometric examination. Mihuru’s affordable payment plans offered through its innovative product Mihuru PayLater, with a simple, fully online, real time credit evaluation makes this credit available to emerging travellers. The startup also has an integrated travel discovery platform that personalizes discovery of curated destinations and activities and also recommends the best flight options for the traveller, inspiring them to avail the credit to book their flights instantly.

3. Startup India Yatra – giving wings to upcoming entrepreneurs

Organized under the Startup India initiative, Startup India Yatra is a series of events that will travel to small cities of India to search for entrepreneurial talent and help develop startup ecosystem in the state. Said to be one of the largest Tier II and III initiatives undertaken by the government, Startup India Yatra has helped 10,000-plus aspiring entrepreneurs in two states.

Launched in 2016, Startup India intends to build a solid ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large-scale employment opportunities.In every state, the Startup Yatra will follow a five-step procedure to support the startup ecosystem in Tier II and III cities. These include initiatives to train colleges/universities for establishing e-cells and spreading the spirit of entrepreneurship, launch of Startup Yatra in respective states, 10 to 12 boot camps to be organised in various districts in every state, acceleration programme where ideas shortlisted from boot camps will receive three days of intensive mentoring from Startup India and its partners, and finally shortlisted ideas will pitch to the state incubators and winners of the Yatra will receive incubation offers, cash prizes, and other benefits. Startup India Yatra recently travelled to its fourth destination – Uttarakhand, conducting boot camps to handhold entrepreneurs to scale their idea to the next level.

For more on our startup coverage, read here.

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AirAsia is making its foray into US Silicon Valley, home to startups and global technology companies, to find “the best startups in the travel industry”.

The low-cost carrier is carrying out the search in partnership with Plug and Play Tech Center, a global innovation platform for startups, corporations and investors. As the anchor partner of Plug and Play’s Travel and Hospitality programme, AirAsia will be able to identify, observe and support relevant startups as they develop new products for the travel sector. The programme mentors new businesses and collaborates with emerging technologies.

Commenting on the move, Aireen Omar, AirAsia deputy group CEO (digital, transformation and corporate services), said, “This partnership, the first of many to keep a finger on the pulse of innovation, will allow us to identify leading edge technologies that will help maintain our leadership in cost and customer experience and transform AirAsia from an airline into a global digital company.”

Plug and Play founder and CEO Saeed Amidi welcomed AirAsia to Silicon Valley, remarking that the airline’s expertise would be a great addition to the platform’s ecosystem. “We are here to help AirAsia engage with the most promising startups in the industry and bring new ideas into their business.”

The carrier has invested heavily in digital services. In March, AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes officially unveiled BigPay, the budget airline’s new digital payments platform, at the Money 2020 conference in Singapore. BigPay offers a mobile wallet which can store up to 10 credit and debit cards, and has partnered with MasterCard to offer its own top-up cash card that can be used for payments and withdrawals worldwide. Previously, the airline debuted its Fast Airport Clearance Experience System (FACES) facial recognition boarding gates at Senai International Airport in Johor Bahru, its southern hub in Malaysia, making it the first in Asia to be fully automated from check-in to boarding.

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As part of its mandate to further enhance India’s digital drive in the travel and tourism industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is organizing the third edition of Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit 2018, March 21-22, FICCI, Federation House, New Delhi.

The Summit will witness the presence of who’s who from the travel and hospitality industry and will cover various topics of discussion related to Future of Travel and Innovation. FICCI and KPMG India will also jointly unveil the knowledge paper ‘Expedition 3.0- Travel and Hospitality Gone Digital’ at the inaugural session of the event.

The Knowledge paper looks at unraveling the technology trends in the travel and hospitality segment that will help better define the future of the industry, how digitalization has impacted the evolution of this industry, and what can be achieved by overall technology inclusion across the stakeholders in the industry ecosystem.

The Summit will also offer an opportunity for travel startups through Travel Tech Launch Pad, a platform for the travel startups to learn from experts in the field of travel, exhibit their business ideas, and display their products and services, in addition to providing a unique opportunity to connect with right set of ecosystem partners. Several travel startups, hospitality and technology companies from across India and abroad will gather during the summit, in addition to the participation of leading investors and angel networks such as Waterbridge, Equanamity, Matrix Partners, Nucleas Partners, Indian Angel Network, Hyderabad Angel network, and Calcutta Angel Network.

For more information about the event, visit www.ficci-thtc.com.

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