13/4/2018 – Myanmar’s ride-hailing and travel startup Oway has recently secured US$14.7 million in its latest funding round intended for business expansion.
Investors in Oway’s round included Daiwa PI Partners, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Belt Road Investment Group, NSI Ventures, and Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar Development Fund II LP, a fund under EMIA.
For Daiwa PI Partners, a subsidiary of Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group, Oway is its second private equity investment in Myanmar, after internet service provider Frontiir.
The company has taken a US$5 million stake in Oway, and expects demand for both online travel and ride-hailing services in Myanmar to soar on the back of growing middle-class affluence and changing lifestyles and aspirations.
Oway is founded in 2012 by Nay Aung, a Myanmar national who had previously worked at Google and Blue Lithium. Based in Yangon, the startup began by offering online travel services but later ventured into the ride-hailing business in 2017.
In November 2017, the startup has also become the first licensee of three-wheeler taxi-hailing operator in Mandalay.
Using the capital from this latest round of investment, Oway aims to expand its service network in other areas as well as the further expansion their range of services.
For now, Oway is now gearing up to launch its mobile application which will initially focus on flight reservations and later branch out into hotels and other services. The firm also plans to release a digital payments solution, Oway Pay which is alated in the next few months.
Oway had last raised a US$10 million investment in 2016 from EMIA, IFC, and Northstar Group, which also backs Indonesia’s ride-hailing major Go-Jek.
