YouTrip grows marketing team in SG as it slashes HK staff headcount

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Financial startup YouTrip has laid off 10 employees in Hong Kong in the last week as part of its efforts to double down on Southeast Asia, and plans to move critical roles to Singapore. According to Caecilia Chu, co-founder and CEO of YouTrip, the roles encompass a broad range of functions, including engineering, product, finance, and HR. However, on the marketing side, the team plans to grow the team, confirmed Chu. "Two key reasons behind this growth is the business expansion into the B2B segment and also our upcoming brand refresh," she added.

The layoffs represent 10% of its 110-strong company workforce. Impacted employees were provided with outplacement support and referrals, as well as severance as per the company's employment terms and local regulations. The layoffs were in line with the company's business plan to strengthen its Singapore office as its regional headquarters; housing the leadership team and all its critical functions under one roof. To that end, YouTrip will establish an innovation lab in Singapore to fast-track its technology capabilities and product development to capture the rise of the multi-currency payments landscape.

In a press statement, YouTrip said that it will double its workforce by 2022, with over 50 new job openings in Singapore across marketing, engineering and product development. YouTrip’s expanded workforce in the innovation lab will be crucial in driving the development of a new suite of multi-currency products and features to serve the changing needs of its users; including a brand refresh and the launch of YouTrip Business. Both the brand refresh and YouTrip Business are currently in the development stage and are scheduled to launch in early 2022.

With regards to the high turnover in the Singapore office, YouTrip clarified that that it had less than 10 voluntary departures in Q4 2020, and many were moving on to pursue new career opportunities after being with the company for two to three years.

Chu said that YouTrip firmly believes that making Singapore a strong and strategic base for the company is the important and right decision for the next phase of the company's growth. "YouTrip has a strong base in Singapore, and has strong ties with industry players that it works closely with, such as Mastercard and Visa, as well as regulators and government bodies to progressively drive forward the fintech ecosystem for Singapore," she added.

" What is most important for us as a business is to focus on what we’re good at. In that regard, Singapore is a very strategic location for us. We have a strong brand here, with a large and supportive user base. We firmly believe that making Singapore a strong and strategic base for the company is the important and right decision for the next phase of our business growth," she added.

On YouTrip's future marketing plans, Chu explained that the company will continue to look for ways to deliver on its goal of bringing the best value to our users in a convenient and reliable manner, especially in Q4 2021. YouTrip has partnered with local and international merchants for its new initiative, YouTrip Perks; which will offer cashbacks and discounts exclusively for YouTrip users. It is also currently running a 15% discount deal with iHerb, with promotions such as a 6% cashback deal on spending on Amazon SG and a SG$10 off per purchase on Taobao to be launched in coming weeks.

YouTrip was first launched in Singapore in 2018 and subsequently in Thailand, in partnership with Kasikornbank, in 2019. Earlier this year, the multi-currency travel wallet inked a six-year partnership with Visa to accelerate its expansion into the rest of Southeast Asia. Leveraging on Visa's global network of 70 million merchant locations worldwide, YouTrip aims to enable Southeast Asia travellers with access to cross-border payment solutions such as wholesale exchange rates and no foreign currency transaction fees in over 150 currencies.

YouTrip said at the start of the year, it was also looking at Malaysia and the Philippines as its next potential markets to build up its presence in by the end of 2021. According to The Business Times, YouTrip said the two markets present massive untapped potential with outbound travel expenditure expected to reach US$12.4 billion and US$12.0 billion from Malaysia and Philippines respectively in 2021. YouTrip also added that its partnership with Visa presents the opportunity to bring its hyper localised, "Truly No Fees" proposition to a growing group of digitally adept travellers.

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