NEWS SINGAPORE AIRLINES AND AIRASIA PARTNER WITH PLUG AND PLAY TO MENTOR TRAVEL STARTUPS AirAsia is partnering with Plug and Play Tech Center to help develop new travel startups, they announced in March. Plug and Play is a global startup innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley. The partnership will see AirAsia in the role of anchor partner in Plug and Play’s Travel and Hospitality programme to mentor new businesses and collaborate with emerging technologies. AirAsia will identify, observe and support relevant startups as they develop new products and technologies for the travel sector. In April, Singapore Airlines (SIA) also announced a partnership with Plug and Play to further promote creativity and innovation within the airline industry using digital solutions. Plug and Play’s Travel & Hospitality programme launched in 2016 and has accelerated 95 startups. www.singaporeair.com | www.airasia.com www.plugandplaytechcenter.com
ATARI CO-FOUNDER TED DABNEY DEAD AT 81 Ted Dabney, who Co-founded Atari in 1972 and helped launch the video game industry, died on May 26 at the age of 81, according to Huffington Post. Dabney had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer late last year and was told he had just eight months to live, according to Eurogamer. Video game historian and scholar Leonard Herman told HuffPost he heard of Dabney’s death from a colleague and phoned Dabney’s wife, Carolyn, to confirm the news and offer his condolences. Herman then relayed the news to his Facebook followers: “RIP dear friend. Your legacy will live on a long time!” he wrote. www.atari.com
TRIP GURU CONTINUES TO GENERATE TRACTION Travel platform Trip Guru from Betatron cohort 2 in Hong Kong has closed its seed round, raising US$500,000, according to Betatron Director of Marketing Sam Ameen. “The TravelTech startup raised funding from a total of eight investors, ranging from angel funders and family offices to venture capital firms and publicly listed companies on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited 14 | JUMPSTART JUL/AUG 2018
(SEHK),” Ameen says, adding that Trip Guru Co-founders Sebastian Renzacci and Francesco Piccolo plan to inject the new funding into market expansion. The goal is to achieve regional scale in its primary market, Southeast Asia, in the first semester of 2018. Aside from cementing its presence in seven countries and 16 destinations in the region, Trip Guru also plans to open tours in new Asian markets including China, India, Nepal and Myanmar.
In addition, Trip Guru will channel the new funds into the launch of its progressive web app (PWA), targeted for Q3 2018. The startup plans to transition its current mobile platform into PWA, which delivers an app-like experience to users from their browsers, without them having to download a native app from Google Play / Apple Store. www.thetripguru.com www.betatron.co