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It joins the ranks of Airbnb and Uber in the travel category in this year’s list

Asia-focussed-tours-and-activities online marketplace BeMyGuest has been conferred the honour of being the first Singapore-based startup to join Fast Company’s Top 50 Most Innovative Companies list in the travel category this year.

Tech giants Airbnb and Uber also joined the ranks in the same category.

In a press release, Fast Company described BeMyGuest as having the “first-for-the-region system that helps small tour operators manage everything from translations to inventory online.”

The selection process goes like this – Fast Company gathers data through Quid, a software that reads millions of news articles, blog posts, company profiles, and patents and offer immediate insight by organising that content visually. A team of researchers also identifies the most relevant trends through measuring innovation across 40 sectors of the economy. Fast Company’s reporting team then takes all these data, analyses them, and comes up with a conclusion.

Launched in 2012 by CEO and Founder Clement Wong, BeMyGuest has over 13,000 activities listed on its platform. In 2013, it raised US$508,000 from South Korea’s Tidesquare. In 2014, it raised US$800,000 led by TNF Ventures.  In the same year, it won the Start-UP Asia competition against 150 competitors.

To date, it has received US$3.54 million in funding.

Late last year, it partnered with leading China online travel agent platform Ctrip, enabling China-bound travellers to book any of BeMyGuest’s list of travel activities and tour deals through Ctrip.

Helping merchants do what they do best

The secret to BeMyGuest’s success, Wong says in an interview with e27, is that it built as a technology provider for merchants. It offers a spectrum of services to merchants including four channels – B2B, website, white label solutions, and API.

The key features are its content, revenue and inventory management systems. Wong says that by taking care of the necessary technological infrastructure for merchants, they can focus on giving the best deals to their customers.

Going forward, BeMyGuest is in talks with leading flight deals platform ZUJI to establish a partnership. It will also expand regionally, partnering with other travel platforms in China and India.

Also Read: 5 Asia-based travel startups you should check out

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