YouTrip Inks Deal for Regional Expansion

The multi-currency mobile wallet has inked a six-year partnership with Visa to grow its reach across Southeast Asia, starting with Malaysia and the Philippines.

The two sides are banking on an international travel recovery and hope to solve a pain point for Southeast Asian travelers by enabling access to cross border payment solutions such as wholesale exchange rates and no foreign currency transaction fees.

Malaysia and the Philippines – two of the fastest-growing Southeast Asian countries in mobile payment adoption– have «massive untapped potential,» with outbound travel expenditure expected to reach $12.4 billion and $12 billion respectively in 2021, YouTrip noted.

The partnership «will enable YouTrip’s continued growth to drive the next generation of payment innovation of cross border payments,» Caecilia Chu, co-founder and CEO of YouTrip said.

Having partnered with Mastercard and EZ-Link to launch in Singapore in August 2018, YouTrip took over the role of issuer and holder of stored value accounts from EZ-Link while continuing the current brand partnership. It also closed a record $25.5 million pre-Series A fundraise in May 2019.

The platform’s plans to tap on the booming regional travel market were nixed with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has since pivoted to overseas e-commerce payment and recorded a three-fold increase in quarterly transactions, compared to the same period last year, YouTrip said.

Currently also available in Thailand, the e-wallet has over 1 million downloads to date.