Voyagin

Voyagin (now Rakuten Travel Experiences) was a tour and activity online booking platform headquartered in Tokyo. The company was founded in 2011 as FindJPN, rebranded as Voyagin in 2012 by its founders, then rebranded again by Rakuten. [1] [2]

Voyagin
TypeOnline travel agency
IndustryTravel
Founded2011
FounderMasashi Takahashi, Tushar Khandelwal, Hiroyuki Hayashi
HeadquartersTokyo, Japan
Area served
Worldwide
OwnerRakuten
Websitegovoyagin.com


In July 2015, Rakuten announced it acquired a majority stake in Voyagin to expand its travel market in Asia.[3] Rakuten absorbed Voyagin on July 1, 2020, while retaining the Voyagin name and website.[4] In December 2021, the company changed its name to Rakuten Travel Experiences and relaunched with a new website.

Business

Voyagin was a travel activities marketplace that enabled travelers and locals to book tickets and tours in Asia and parts of Europe and the US. As Rakuten Travel Experiences, the service has extended to cover destinations in North and South America as well as Oceania.

History

The company was founded in January 2011 originally under the name of FindJPN by Masashi Takahashi and Hiroyuki Hayashi. Tushar Khandelwal came on board in 2012 and they relaunched the brand as Voyagin, a more global approach to booking tours and activities. It started as part of Open Network Lab, a Japanese incubator, and then raised seed funding from Digital Garage and other investors in 2012.[5]

They then raised a second round of funding of $500,000 in 2014, led by Singapore National Research Foundation and Jungle Ventures.[6]

On July 2, 2015, Rakuten announced their majority-stake acquisition of Voyagin after 6 months of talks, for an undisclosed figure, with the aim to expand their market share of the Asia travel industry.[7]

On April 20, 2020, Rakuten announced the decision to merge Voyagin into Rakuten. The absorption-type merger was completed on July 1, 2020.[8]

On December 23, 2021, the company changed its name to Rakuten Travel Experiences and launched a new website at https://experiences.travel.rakuten.com/.

References
  1. "The Voyagin story: Its sail from startup to a Rakuten company". e27. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  2. "Voyagin is now Rakuten Travel Experiences!". Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  3. "Rakuten Acquires Majority Stake in Voyagin Pte. Ltd".
  4. "Announcement of Merger (Simplified Merger and Short form Merger) of Voyagin Inc".
  5. Shu, Catherine. "Tokyo-Based Voyagin Gives Travelers A More Up-Close And Offbeat Look at Asian Cities | TechCrunch". Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  6. "Singapore: Jungle Ventures bags best VC exit award at SVCA's 23rd anniversary event - DealStreetAsia". dealstreetasia.com. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  7. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". techinasia.com. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  8. "Announcement of Completion of Merger (Simplified Merger and Short form Merger) of Voyagin Inc".
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