AirAsia Group transfers non-airline related digital businesses to Redbeat Ventures

AirAsia Group is transferring its non-digital businesses to Redbeat Ventures its wholly owned subsidiary. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the group announced that Redbeat Ventures entered into a Share Sale Agreement with AirAsia Berhad and AirAsia Investment Ltd respectively on 25 June 2018 to acquire nine non-airline digital businesses as well as their subsidiaries. These entities principally involved in the provision of digital-related services including AirAsia BIG Loyalty, BigPay, travel360, ROKKI, Ourshop, RedCargo Logistics, RedBox Logistics, Vidi and RedTix. AirAsia deputy group CEO (Digital, Transformation and Corporate Services) Aireen Omar said, “By placing our digital assets under Redbeat Ventures, we hope to more effectively expand and monetise our digital businesses and broaden AirAsia’s digital footprint. As the corporate venture arm of AirAsia, Redbeat Ventures looks at working with technology startups and looks out for investment opportunities in the high-tech and digital space to remain competitive and relevant in these rapidly changing commercial and technological environments. She added: “The vision for Redbeat Ventures is to connect with the start-up community globally through collaboration to foster entrepreneurship and stimulate market-driven innovation that would benefit not just AirAsia’s ecosystem but help lead the digital economy and lifestyle in ASEAN.” In October last year, AirAsia partnered with Google Cloud to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence into every aspect of the airline’s business and culture. This is part of AirAsia’s transformation into a travel technology company. As part of the partnership, both parties will work to solve high-impact business challenges including driving better demand forecasting and more targeted marketing. AirAsia and Google Cloud also said at that point that they aim to improve customer experience and loyalty by providing a more personalised experience for its customers, as well as maximise operational efficiency and reduce risk through predictive maintenance, real-time weather forecasting and crew optimisation.