While travel is a wild card, YouTrip eyes new licences and bags US$30m

EVEN as Omicron fears hit tourism recovery, travel wallet operator YouTrip is doubling down on its multi-currency payments product. The Singapore-based startup is set to acquire 2 more payments licences in South-east Asia, chief executive Caecilia Chu told The Business Times.

"We have laid out the groundwork for the past 12 to 18 months, and we're very close to announcing them," Chu said, declining to reveal specifics. YouTrip currently has a payments licence in Singapore and operates in Thailand through a partnership with Kasikornbank.

The startup's expansion plans come on the back of fresh capital. On Tuesday (Nov 30), YouTrip announced that it has raised US$30 million in Series A funding from undisclosed investors, which include Asian family offices and fintech investors.

These investors had also backed the startup's US$25.5 million pre-Series A round in 2019. But Insignia Ventures Partners, which participated in the previous round, did not join the latest raise.

Founded in 2018, YouTrip operates a multi-currency card - with Mastercard - and e-wallet. Prior to Covid-19, its focus was on the consumer travel market. But with the pandemic, it has been pivoting into a broader digital payments app, while also entering the business-to-business (B2B) space.

By expanding its consumer app regionally, YouTrip hopes to serve more use cases beyond travel. "As we launch wallets in additional South-east Asian markets, what we can then do is to make cross-border remittances really seamless and fast through the YouTrip network," said Chu.

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On the B2B front, the startup is set to launch a new corporate credit card, called YouBiz, for multi-currency payments. The product will come with a higher spending limit and credit terms offered to selected business account users. Companies can also issue corporate cards to employees.

The B2B segment is however an increasingly crowded one. Alongside traditional banks, fintechs such as Nium and MatchMove are also focused on SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) needs. The upcoming launch of digibanks - with heavyweights like Ant Group, Sea, Singtel and Grab - could further heat up competition.

Asked how YouTrip plans to differentiate itself, Chu raises two factors: YouTrip's existing brand image as a multi-currency payments player, as well as how it owns its tech infrastructure.

"From research, we realised that other SME neobanks are essentially relying on the same licensed card issuers who provide a white-label service. For YouTrip, we have everything that the licensed white-lable company has, but we use it for ourselves... to tailor our product for customers," Chu said.

This avoids a situation where "you have many players along your supply chain and everyone needs to make some money", she added.

YouBiz's beta launch has received more than 1,000 sign-ups to date. The product will be rolled out in Singapore in Q1 next year, with plans to expand it to 5 other South-east Asian markets over the next year.

This feeds into YouTrip's broader strategy to double down on South-east Asia. Earlier this year, it laid off a third of its workforce in Hong Kong, which Chu cited as a move to bring critical roles to Singapore. The company is simultaneously adding 50 roles in Singapore for product development and engineering, while setting up an innovation lab here.