HONG KONG, June 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Flow, the Hong Kong-based leading marketplace for timeslot hotels and workspaces, today announced that it has successfully raised over US$1 million in Series Pre-A to further accelerate expansion in Southeast Asian markets for hotels and travel experiences. The round was led by family office Millard Partners, with participation from HCL Capital, Gabriel Fong, the former Chairman of GOGOX and Tim Wong, the former Chairman of Man Group Asia. The funding will be used to enhance existing market penetration rate, extend its presence to more first-tier Southeast Asian cities, including Bangkok and Jakarta, as well as to introduce new products relevant to hotel and space booking in order to further enhance user experience. The company is dedicated to becoming a full-on leisure activities booking platform focused on domestic travellers.
Hong Kong Tech Startup, Flow, Raises Over US$1 million Series Pre-A Funding to Accelerate Expansion in Southeast Asian Markets.
Founded in 2018 in Hong Kong, Flow is devoted to providing flexible timeslot booking services for high-end hotels and spaces at affordable prices. Also, the platform creates clear values for hotel partners by bringing in additional revenue from local user demand and improving room occupancy by up to 30% on top of the traditional and fixed duration of a stay - 2pm to 12pm the next day. Operating in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City, Flow has over 400K App downloads and 100K registered users to-date. The platform has partnered with over 500 3 to 5-star hotel groups, including InterContinental Hotel Groups, Accor Hotels and Regal Hotels International etc across Hong Kong, Macau and various Southeast Asian regions, covering 35% of all the 3 to 5-star hotels.
Flow Enters Southeast Asian Markets to Promote Local Travel
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Flow has achieved more than a double in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV), which reflects the surging demand of local leisure activities for consumers under current travel restrictions. Amongst all, Daycation has become one of the most popular leisure activities across different age groups. In view of this, Flow has decided to further accelerate expansion in Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand and Indonesia to offer all-round hotel-related leisure activities booking services including dining, transportation and entertainment programs. Furthermore, Flow targets to partner with over 1,000 3 to 5-star hotel groups by the end of 2022 in order to provide a more comprehensive and flexible leisure and accommodation experiences for local consumers.
Flexible Leisure Experiences Become Irresistible in Post-pandemic Era
According to a report from McKinsey & Company, international tourism spending is not likely to return to pre-crisis level until 2024. "Even though more and more European and American countries and Asian regions will relax entry restrictions, it is expected that the instability of the pandemic will diminish travellers' interest in travelling abroad, which makes local and short-haul travellers become the major trend. Traditional travel and booking options such as offline travel operators and 4D3N travel tours are no longer able to fulfill the needs of this group of customers. It is crucial for hotel and travel operators to adjust their service offerings with digitized systems and flexible options in order to cater to the local consumers' demand and thrive after the pandemic. '' said Eric Lai, the Co-founder and Director of Operations.
Flow sees tremendous growth opportunities in travel and hotel industry in post-pandemic era, the team has planned to recruit more business development, marketing and IT talents to accelerate the business operations in each local market across Southeast Asia.
About Flow
Founded in 2018 in Hong Kong, Flow is devoted to providing highly flexible timeslot booking services for hotels and spaces and becoming a full-on leisure activities booking platform focused on domestic travellers. Operating in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City, Flow has over 400K App downloads and 100K registered users to-date. The platform has partnered with over 500 3 to 5-star hotel groups, covering 35% of all the 3 to 5-star hotels. More information, please visit: https://app.flowtheroom.com/hk/en
