Singapore – Singapore’s multi currency digital payments platform YouTrip has recently announced that it has raised US$50 million in its latest Series B fundraising round, led by new investor and global venture capital firm Lightspeed. 

The sizable investment by Lightspeed is a vote of confidence in YouTrip’s ability to deliver innovative and hyperlocal solutions, and its leadership in building a scalable business strategy to tap into the vast market opportunity in Southeast Asia.

The new capital will be used to further propel the company’s growth trajectory by investing in more technologies to deepen product and innovation capabilities, and expanding its regional team by hiring over a hundred new talents as it launches in new markets across Southeast Asia. 

Committed to its mission of providing accessible, convenient, and seamless digital payment services, YouTrip specifically aims to expand its regional presence across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Furthermore, YouTrip also plans to grow its portfolio of services to help SMEs accelerate their cross-border growth plans in the digital economy. This includes enhancing its current expense management capabilities as well as introducing new features such as credit lines to cater to the diverse needs of businesses as they expand and grow.

Caecilia Chu, CEO and co-founder of YouTrip, said, “The latest funding round is YouTrip’s largest to date and is a testament to our strong potential in the B2B and B2C payment spaces. We are confident in our ability to catalyse the growth of cross-border commerce, bringing accessible, integrated and seamless digital payment services to millions of users across Southeast Asia and beyond.”

Arthur Mak, co-founder and chief product officer of YouTrip, also added, “We remain committed to developing hyper-personalised offerings that meet the unique needs of our users, and are excited to bring our innovative payment solutions to diverse markets in Southeast Asia so that more can enjoy the intuitive convenience and cost-saving benefits effectuated by our B2B and B2C products.” 

Meanwhile, Pinn Lawjindakul, partner at Lightspeed, commented, “My personal experience of the pain point reinforces my conviction in what the YouTrip team has built. Their multi-currency digital payments platform enables everyone to have a safer, smarter and superior experience with foreign currencies and digital payments. We are excited by their depth and vision, and look forward to partnering them in this next phase of growth and expansion.”

Manila, Philippines – Malaysian retail specialist Valiram Group is currently looking at expanding its operations in the Philippines by developing airport outlets for duty-free retail tourism.

Meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Singapore, Valiram Group expressed their interest in expanding in the next five years with the Philippines on their list.

In this plan, Valiram’s development priorities include having duty-free access at the airports, with the company building more airport walk-through stores personalised to provide customers with a pleasant shopping experience.

Valiram aims to elevate customer experience in the Philippines, especially by giving them more space at the nation’s gateways, removing the stress and hassles of security checks.This initiative is also in line with Valiram’s interest to grow the local presence with their affiliated international brands through these Philippine outlets. 

Expressing the group’s interest, a Valiram official said, “We are looking to bring the success that we have in Southeast Asia, outside the Philippines, and into the Philippines. You know, we now have a net worth of over 500 stores. And some brands are not yet represented in the Philippines and so we’ve been working hard and with everyone’s support and guidance, we’re looking forward to expanding very quickly.”

The President acknowledged that retail business is a significant part of today’s economy and in the case of Valiram, of the tourism industry.

“It’s an important sector of the economy. It’s what’s driving the economy now, it’s consumer spending. I always say this: not all Filipinos are Ilocanos. Ilocanos don’t spend,” Marcos said jokingly.

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez expressed his support for the President’s thrust to encourage more investors to come to the Philippines, noting that Congress is focusing on crafting legislation or laws that govern the treatment and the appreciation of foreign investments into the country.

In the President’s business meetings with Dyson Group and the Valiram Group, Romualdez mentioned that Marcos welcomes and supports all of these initiatives.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – E-commerce technology company iPrice has announced the launch of iPrice.au, providing Australian consumers with the same proprietary online shopping experience it’s been offering Asian shoppers for the past 8 years.

With the launch of iPrice.au, iPrice stands apart in the Australian market with its unique ability to compare and curate offers at the same scale it employs in Southeast Asia, a region where it continues to help over 130 million shoppers each year to save money online.

The new iprice.au website builds on past successes with a blended approach, adding human curation on top of its proven technology platform. With large teams of category experts constantly reviewing the catalogue, they are able to quickly intervene where offers might be too-good-to-be-true. This method ensures that Price users see the best offers available at the time of their search.

The Australian launch of iPrice.au marks the first significant expansion beyond Southeast Asia, setting the stage for future growth in the region, responding to a growing demand to streamline the online shopping experience for Australian consumers by offering a more effective way to save money.

Talking about the expansion, Karl Loo, SVP of business development & internationalisation at iPrice, said, “As inflationary pressures make shoppers more cautious about spending, we are pleased to provide the convenience of Southeast Asia’s largest price comparison platform to Australia, to help Australians get more bang for their buck when shopping online.”

Meanwhile, Heinrich Wendel, co-founder and CEO of iPrice, commented, “Our mission has always been to help consumers save money, it’s great to see how our technology developed for hundreds of millions of consumers in SEA has the potential to carry forward to new markets like Australia.”

Sydney, Australia – Data collaboration platform LiveRamp has announced an expanded partnership with visual inspiration platform Pinterest, to offer a better global integration for advertisers to reach their audiences on Pinterest’s platform globally. 

Through the partnership, marketers will be able to reach their customers on Pinterest with seamless activation on RampID, LiveRamp’s pseudonymous, people-based identifier.

The partnership between LiveRamp and Pinterest will now span APAC markets of Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Marketers in the region will now be able to easily activate Pinterest as a destination via LiveRamp.

The expansion aims to  improve measurement and analytics for advertisers and create more opportunities for brands to derive value from first-party data within the APAC region. At a time when ROI matters more than ever, APAC  marketers can benefit from the performance and access to insights enabled by this partnership.

“We’re excited to continue building on the momentum of our privacy-centric data collaboration with LiveRamp. We’re now enabling even more marketers around the world to activate on Pinterest without compromising on control or privacy,” said Bill Watkins, chief revenue officer at Pinterest. “Global marketers can build better campaigns with LiveRamp and Pinterest today. They can also build campaigns with the confidence that this partnership is sustainable beyond third-party cookie deprecation and other ecosystem shifts.”

“In this evolving macroeconomic climate, every dollar marketers spend must be addressable and measurable, and we’re excited to offer marketers across the world the ability to seamlessly leverage RampID, enabling better campaigns,” said Travis Clinger, SVP, activations & addressability, LiveRamp. “By building on identity that can power better data collaboration in the future, marketers can begin building enduring brand and business value.”

Queensland, Australia – Strategic brand and commercial agency Bastion Experience has announced its entrance into the Queensland market. The expansion comes with the appointment of Rohan Sawyer, who will be leading the new team as managing director for Queensland

In the new role, Sawyer will lead the Bastion Experience team in Queensland while providing clients with access to the full suite of integrated communications services under Bastion’s ‘Think Wide’ model. This will bring together ‘best-in-class’ offerings and experts across research and insights through brand and creative, and advertising, amongst others.

Prior to joining Bastion, Sawyer was Queensland Rugby League’s CEO and chief operating officer for five years. He is also an experienced sports, entertainment, and finance industry executive.

On his appointment, Sawyer said, “I am thrilled to join a market leader and innovator in the industry, with a proven track record of delivering on brands and rights holders’ needs to drive commercial growth. I look forward to contributing my expertise and working with the talented team to deliver significant benefits to brands and their customers.”

Jack Watts, Bastion’s CEO, also expressed his excitement towards the new initiatives.

“Firstly, we love Queensland. It has been a long held ambition to build our fully integrated, independent agency model in Queensland. We started last year with the acquisition of Queensland PR and Social Agency Promedia, now Bastion Amplify, and continue our investment in the state with Rohan and the launch of Bastion Experience,” he said.

He also said that Sawyer is an ‘ideal candidate’ to lead Bastion Experience’s drive into a market set for significant long-term growth.

“We believe our long held reputation and work in Sport and Lifestyle will be critical to our growth in the State, and I don’t believe there is any better executive in Sport than Rohan Sawyer. We’re thrilled to have him on board to lead our commercial, sponsorship and experiential services in Queensland,” Watts added. 

The expansion follows the launch of Bastion Amplify’s entrance into the Queensland market with the acquisition of Gold Coast-based, full-service PR firm Promedia in November 2022.

Kowloon, Hong Kong With the aim of increasing its store portfolio across the Asia-Pacific, Starbucks has announced its plans to open 400 new stores in the region in 2023 to serve additional communities in its major cities.

Starbucks also plans to build on its existing portfolio of over 300 stores across 40 cities in India by extending its footprint into at least five new cities. The company also targets expanding its stores beyond the metropolitan areas of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, as well as opening a new store in Laos. 

“Asia Pacific is a dynamic and diverse engine of growth for Starbucks globally. As recovery continues, the region achieved over 20% sales growth year on year, demonstrating the strength and relevance of the brand,” said Michael Conway, group president of International and Channel Development for Starbucks.

He also added that the company is well-positioned for further growth with its licensed business partners.

Moreover, the company has also unveiled its new store in Gwangyang-si, South Korea today, February 16, which marks its 5,000th store milestone in APAC. According to Starbucks, the new store has the latest digital features and technology and a new drive-thru store that offers customers on-the-go more convenience.

To this, Conway commented, “The opening of our 5,000th store in Asia Pacific reaffirms our commitment to bring the unparalleled Starbucks Experience to more customers in one of our fastest growing regions.”

Emmy Kan, president of Starbucks Asia Pacific also said, “That our 5,000th store in Asia Pacific is a drive-thru store speaks both to the changing habits of our customers, and of our determination to meet them where it is most convenient, while still offering the Starbucks connection.” 

She also added that the company will continue to enhance its store formats and innovate to cater to changing customer behaviours and fuel growth in the region.

Building on the welcoming ‘third place’ experience, Starbucks also plans to open more Starbucks Reserve stores across APAC to bring customers an ‘intimate, multi-sensory coffee experience’.

Singapore – Digital experience (DX) analytics company Contentsquare has recently concluded its Series E funding totalling to US$500m, which will be used by the company to augment its leadership in Europe and the US as well as supporting expansion into new markets across Asia.

Said investment round was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, who now joins existing investors such as Eurazeo, Bpifrance, KKR, Canaan, Highland Europe, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock — most of whom also participated in this round. 

In addition to the investment, Contentsquare will take advantage of SoftBank’s depth of expertise in scaling companies and networks in Asia, which will be strengthened by the recent appointment of Michel Combes, president of SoftBank Group International, as part of Contentsquare’s board of directors.

The newly secured funding will also support Contentsquare’s rapid growth and geographic expansion, merger and acquisition activities, as well as go-to-market strategies.

This latest round comes one year after Contentsquare’s US$190m Series D raise, bringing the total funding to date to US$810m and valuing Contentsquare at US$2.8b.

“Innovation is in Contentsquare’s DNA and today’s investment is a result of the tremendous hard work of our passionate and ambitious team. Our growth has been accelerated by the world’s shift towards digital, and our technology answers many of the digital transformation challenges brands face today,” said Jonathan Cherki, CEO and founder at Contentsquare.

Contentsquare’s momentum last year has been defined by several milestones, including exponential growth globally, with a compound annual recurring revenue growth rate of 121% over the past four years; product launches such as ‘Contentsquare Merchandising’, ‘Contentsquare Insights’ and ‘Find & Fix’; and massive team expansion to APAC with teams in Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne and Sydney.

“By democratizing access to actionable customer insights, Contentsquare empowers businesses in every sector to build better digital experiences for everyone. We’re excited to partner with Contentsquare on its journey as one of the global leaders in UX optimization,” Yanni Pipilis, managing partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, commented.