JAKARTA: Jakarta-based travel technology startup Spun has raised US$1.8mil in seed funding to expand visa-processing operations across South-East Asia, as visa systems in the region remain fragmented amid rising cross-border travel and work mobility.
The funding round was led by Genesia Ventures, with participation from Antler, Spiral Ventures, Iterative, Kopital Ventures and angel investor Kum Hong Siew, the former managing director of Airbnb China.
Spun operates a platform that processes inbound and outbound visa applications using artificial intelligence-enabled systems.
“By building a single intelligence layer that works across both segments, we’re creating infrastructure that can scale regionally, while delivering reliability for both individual travellers and travel partners,” said Christa Sabathaly, chief executive officer and co-founder of Spun in a statement on Monday.
According to the company, Spun has processed thousands of visa applications within its first 12 months of operations, recording a 99% approval rate, supporting more than 300 visa types across over 90 countries.
It serves individual applicants and business clients, including more than 200 travel agents and resellers, embedded in several travel platforms operating in South-East Asia, including Klook, Traveloka, Tiket and Nusatrip.
The seed funding will be used to support Spun’s expansion into additional South-East Asian markets, deepen automation within its visa-processing system and strengthen integrations with travel platforms and business partners, the statement added.
“Most people still think of visas as a manual service business. We see it as an infrastructure problem.” — China Daily/ANN
