AirAsia to raise capital to fund AirAsia Digital

Airasia Group is looking into raising capital to fund its digital arm AirAsia Digital to further diversify revenue stream for the group. Group CEO Tan Sri Dr Tony Fernandes said AirAsia Digital is the group’s “next phase” and aims to be a new kind of travel technology company in the region through the strength of its assets and access to talents.

“Our aim is to be an ASEAN super app, our strength is in ASEAN. Obviously, we have accelerated this plan in this post-Covid-19 world,” he told reporters in a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Previously known as RedBeat Ventures Sdn Bhd upon launch in 2018, AirAsia Digital leverages the group’s physical and digital assets to create an ecosystem of businesses that connect with its customers in their everyday life.

It comprises three main pillars — venture builder, RedBeat Academy, and data center. Venture builder is dedicated to incubating and growing strategic businesses that focus on logistics and e-commerce and financial services. It includes its five portfolio companies AirAsia.com, Teleport, BigPay, BIGLIFE, and Santan.

RedBeat Academy trains and produces a steady pool of digital experts to fill and boost the talent gaps in ASEAN, while the data center is a data consultancy department that provides a range of services including data governance, data engineering, and various types of analytics.

Asked about the company’s strategy against competitors and to fit into an ASEAN market such as Indonesia, Fernandes said they are there to complement the market instead of competing.

“In the same way that AirAsia is much smaller than Lion Air, but we fitted into that market. We are nowhere near the size of Gojek but again, AirAsia is not about being dominant in one country, it’s about providing an Asian product and serving the market,” he said.

Fernandes said the business will seek venture capital or other investors to grow the user base of the super app, similar to how AirAsia raised its capital.