Wego, formerly known as Bezurk,) is a Singaporean travel metasearch engine based in Singapore. It operates 52 country sites in over 20 languages and local currencies. Wego displays travel rate results in real time from over 700 travel sites, so users can shop and compare flight and hotel prices available online. Wego displays a combination of local and international airfares and hotel search results from online travel agencies, airlines and hotels on desktop or travel app for iOS and Android. Once a user has selected their preference, they are redirected to the travel supplier to complete their booking.
History
Bezurk was founded in Singapore in 2005 by Ross Veitch and Craig Hewett. In January 2008, Wego received Series A funding of US$4.5 million from News Digital Media, the Australian digital arm of News Limited. In May 2008, Bezurk was rebranded to Wego citing that the name was "hard to remember and spell". In December 2010, the company secured US$13million in Series B funding from Tiger Global Management. In 2013, Wego launched its Bangalore, Jakarta, and Dubai regional offices. In June 2013, Wego closed its Series C funding round of US$17 million from Tiger Global Management, Crescent Point Group and SquarePeg Capital. In October 2015 Wego closed series D US$11 million from existing investors Tiger Global Management and Crescent Point Group. The same month also saw Wego voted as the Best Asia/Pacific Online Travel Agency Website, at the 8th TravelMole - ITB Asia Web Awards 2015. Wego excelled at the judging criteria which focused on excellence in online travel, effective online engagement as well as all other components which make a website stand out. In August 2017, the company closed a Series E round of US$12 million from Middle East Broadcasting Center. In 2018, six years into its initial penetration into the Middle Eastern market, Wego has since seen its revenue soared to US$ 1 billion worth of gross travel bookings across its entire business. In 2019, Wego was named by the World Economic Forum and the Bahrain Economic Development Board as one of the 100 most promising Arab start-ups shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Market activity
Wego's core markets are in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and India. Wego travel app currently ranks within the top five of the most popular app in the iOS and Playstore travel category for Middle Eastern region. To achieve widespread installation, Wego partners up with various smartphone manufacturers to have their app come preinstalled. Each month Wego sends flight and hotel booking referrals worth US$ 1.5B to its travel partners. In addition to partnerships with hotels, airlines and OTAs, Wego continuously collaborates with tourism boards of various countries, such as Singapore, South Korea, Jordan, Macao and many others, to increase travel demands to and from said countries. In June 2014, the company launched Wego's Private Marketplace providing advertisers access to Wego's travel audiences via programmatic buying. The trading desk operates with DSP partners from the US and UK, including Xaxis, Amnet and RadiumOne, and others in the Asia Pacific, Macau and the Middle East. Ross Veitch, the CEO of Wego, has stated for a possible US IPO once the company has reached a $1 billion market cap. Veitch considers this a reasonable next step due to the fact that the US markets are where the world’s biggest online travel companies trade.
