In an effort to expand its presence in South East Asia, South Korea's third largest OTA Tidesquare has made a strategic investment in Singapore-based tours and activities player BeMyGuest.
The funding amount was not disclosed. BeMyGuest has confirmed that it is not a merger deal, rather its a strategic investment by Tidesquare that will open doors for both parties to work together.
BeMyGuest will use this new fund to expand its business through strategic acquisitions, improving the technology that powers the business, and increasing the marketing activity.
In October 2013, BeMyGuest raised $400,000 in angel fund and added Blanca Menchaca as a partner and chief marketing officer. Menchaca was previously the global head of online marketing at Wego.
When asked about plans to list BeMyGuest products in Tidesquare, Menchaca says:
"This is a possibility that we will contemplate as part of this deal."
BeMyGuest says South Korea is its key market in 2014 and South East Asia is for Tidesquare.
CEO of Tidesquare, Min Yoon says:
"BeMyGuest presents a fresh travel product that is growing rapidly in popularity with travellers everywhere. We’re very happy to have the opportunity to invest in such a unique product and team that is clearly providing travellers with the unique experiences they seek today."
Founder and CEO of BeMyGuest, Clement Wong says:
"South Korea is a large inbound travel sector in South East Asia and we see this integration of our companies as such a positive move for both region’s tourism markets, and a huge win for the travel consumer."
BeMyGuest's website visits grew by 155% and bookings by 120% for the past quarter.
Tidesquare is the third largest OTA in South Korea that operates a premium travel service for premium card members, Privia Travel.
Tidesquare now generates 15,000 to 20,000 bookings per month, 300,000 site visitors per month, and in 2012 produced more than US$120 million in ticket sales revenue.
Competitors of BeMyGuest in Asia includes WithLocals (TLabs here), myRealTrip (TLabs here), Triip.me (TLabs here), and Indiescapes (TLabs here).