US- and Singapore-based digital identity provider GTRIIP announces today it has secured an undisclosed amount in Series B round of funding from Japanese VC firm GlobalBrain through its KDDI Open Innovation Fund-III (KOIF).
Kepventure, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Keppel Corporation, and Japan’s Accord Ventures also joined the round.
GTRIIP will use the capital for expansion in both hospitality and other commercial properties in the Asia Pacific markets with ageing populations, waning workforces, and high labour costs.
The company believes that technological innovations such as Artificial Intelligence can enable hotels to work around limitations by reducing repetitive, high-volume tasks via automating check-ins and identify verifications, leading to increased productivity.
“The investment aligns with our vision to grow further in the Asia Pacific. It is an ideal opportunity to showcase the value in seamlessly checking in a large number of travelers using their own smartphones,” said Maxim Tint, Founder and CEO of GTRIIP.
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GTRIIP was founded in 2014 and currently has a 20-staff team. It claims to have completed installations for over 13,000 rooms and access points and facilitated over one million digital identity check-ins.
In Singapore, GTRIIP’s customer hotels are enabled with the E-Visitor Authentication (EVA) system, which the company said to help reducing guest check-in time at the front desk by 70 per cent.
“GTRIIP’s product requires no additional hardware which makes it inherently more scalable and sustainable for properties, allowing them to enjoy the full benefits of automated check-ins without incurring the extra capital expenditure. It also produces less carbon footprint and is more environmentally friendly than physical identity solutions, such as plastic ID and access cards, or hardware kiosks,” Tint added.
The firm is currently looking to diversify its product lines into new verticals beyond hospitality by launching specialised products for other commercial properties, such as tenant access and visitor access.
GTRIIP previously raised US$1 million in Series A funding from connectivity solutions provider M1. The money was used to scale its first product to serve hospitality customers in Singapore and Macau, including the likes of Park Hotel Group, Amara Hotel Group, and other major casino resort brands.
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KDDI manages the investment portfolios of major Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI Corporation. KOIF’s Singapore office was established in June last year, but the global fund’s investment has been investing in Singapore and Indonesia-based startups since 2018.
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Picture Credit: GTRIIP
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