AirAsia heading to Silicon Valley with VC fund
Budget airline group AirAsia is starting a venture capital fund to help benefit startups in Southeast Asia.
RedBeat Capital plans to target early-stage startups in travel and tourism, cybersecurity, lifestyle and other related segments in partnership with startup accelerator 500 Startups.
AirAsia’s deputy group CEO, Aireen Omar will head up the San Francisco based business.
500 Startups says the ASEAN region is one of the world’s fastest-growing tech markets but has been mostly ignored by Silicon Valley apart from a few notable exceptions.
The VC fund will target investments that will be complementary to AirAsia’s core business.
AirAsia has actually been repositioning itself beyond the core airline business to encompass ecommerce, fintech and travel.
Omar says non-air revenues account for about 20% of business and there is potential to increase this to about 50% over time.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
Have your say Cancel reply
Subscribe/Login to Travel Mole Newsletter
Travel Mole Newsletter is a subscriber only travel trade news publication. If you are receiving this message, simply enter your email address to sign in or register if you are not. In order to display the B2B travel content that meets your business needs, we need to know who are and what are your business needs. ITR is free to our subscribers.
































Qatar Airways offers flexible payment options for European travellers
Airlines suspend Madagascar services following unrest and army revolt
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025
Digital Travel Reporter of the Mirror totally seduced by HotelPlanner AI Travel Agent
Strike action set to cause travel chaos at Brussels airports