Rakuten takes stake in travel startup Voyagin
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has taken a majority stake in Japanese tour-planning startup Voyagin.
Tokyo based Voyagin was established in 2012 and list about 1,800 activities in over 50 destinations, including Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Okinawa and Bali, Indonesia.
"At the moment, we’re a marketplace to mostly book private tour guides and activities. With the recent acquisition and investment, we look forward to offering more products to become an online player to book any ‘thing to do’ in Japan," said Voyagin COO Tushar Khandelwal.
"Right now, we’re focused on Tokyo, Kyoto, Okinawa and Bali as our core markets, but we look forward to expanding into more areas of Japan, Southeast Asia and China," he said.
"We don’t have the distraction of having to fundraise again."
Rakuten has a US$20 billion market cap and annual revenues of more than US$5 billion.
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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.
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