Expedia targets Southeast Asia with latest investment

Expedia is setting its sights on Southeast Asia’s booming travel industry following the acquisition of a stake in Traveloka, the Indonesian OTA.

The US-based online travel giant has made a “primary minority investment” in Traveloka worth US$350 million. Private equity companies including Sequoia Capital have also contributed funding to Traveloka, bringing the total investment achieved by the company in the last year to approximately US$500m.

In addition to the equity investment, Expedia said the two companies would be “deepening their cooperation on global hotel supply”.

“Traveloka is the clear online travel leader in Indonesia, and is expanding aggressively throughout Southeast Asia. Our partnership will benefit from each side’s expertise and local knowledge, and accelerate our mutual growth,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, president & CEO of Expedia.

“We are incredibly excited to continue to expand our presence in Asia, to learn from the talented Traveloka team and to unlock a more diverse offering of travel choices for Traveloka and Expedia travellers around the globe.”

This marks the latest phase of Expedia’s Asia Pacific expansion strategy; in 2015, the company acquired Australia-based Orbitz and took a majority stake in AAE Travel, its joint venture with AirAsia. The company is also expanding its Asian headquarters in Singapore.

Traveloka was founded in 2012.

“Partnering with the world’s leading online travel company will allow us to focus on our continued growth in the online travel space to meet our goal of providing travellers the best travel options and highest quality booking experience,” commented Ferry Unardi, Traveloka’s co-founder & CEO. “The expanded partnership gives Traveloka travellers access to a unique and diverse set of international accommodations and we are looking forward to working with Expedia to expand our services in Asia and beyond.”