RedDoorz, Southeast Asia’s largest and fastest-growing hotel management and reservation platform, today announced a successful $45 million fundraising in a Series B round. The Singapore-headquartered startup operates in over 80 cities across 4 Southeast Asian countries -Eastern, namely in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and manages over 1,200 budget hotels and properties.
According to Business Mirrorthe brand new round of financing was led by Chinese enterprise capital firm Qiming Venture Partners, along with Jungle Ventures and its network of limited partners.
The round also saw participation from latest investors MNC Group (a number one media company in Indonesia) and received continued support from Susquehanna International Group, Hendale Capital, International Finance Corporation and others. The company intends to allocate the brand new amounts to aggressive implementation of its development strategy and further increasing its leading position within the hotel and catering segment within the region.
However, unlike international hotel chains, RedDoorz focuses on the domestic tourism market in Southeast Asia. According to RedDoorz founder and CEO Amit Saberwal to the South China Morning Post, domestic travelers make repeat trips, so there is no such thing as a must re-attract customers each time. He estimated that 70 percent of RedDoorz customers are repeat visitors. For comparison, the industry average is 20-25%.
Saberwal announced that RedDoorz could reach 1 million occupied nights by December – what the industry calls “heads in beds.” Recently, the variety of occupied rooms reached 500,000, an industry first within the Southeast Asia travel category.
“We are adding 200 latest properties to our network every month and plan to proceed to grow within the remaining months of the yr. As we expand across the region, we proceed to grow our business as the highest selection for high-quality and reliable accommodations,” Saberwal added, as quoted by Asia One.
According to the e-Conomy SEA 2018 study conducted by Google-TemasekOnline travel is the biggest and most established of the 4 online economy industries in Southeast Asia, reaching gross bookings value (GBV) of $30 billion in 2018 and on target to achieve $78 billion GBV by 2025.
The industry is predicted to grow 15 percent year-on-year, and online sources dominate travel planning and booking. As Southeast Asians prioritize their discretionary spending on travel and tourism, the region presents largely untapped potential that RedDoorz intends to proceed to leverage.
