Myanmar’s leading travel booking and ride-hailing service provider Oway Group said it is currently in discussions with potential investors to close an eight-digit funding round in October.
As part of the round, IFC has made an equity investment worth US$2 million in the startup in early 2017, marking the World Bank arm’s first investment in a Myanmar’s technology startup.
This round follows a one-year gap with Oway’s previous funding round raised at US$10 million from investors including Northstar Group, Emerging Markets Investment Advisers Pte Ltd (EMIA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Founded by Nay Aung, a Stanford and London School of Economics alum who has earlier worked with Google and Blue Lithium, Oway Group is a startup operating an online travel portal oway.com.mm and ride-hailing app Oway Ride.
The startup is currently planning more technology investments to differentiate itself in the market. It is already tapping into the payment space and exploring other tech-based offerings.
According to Oway, the next step for the firm is to expand Oway Pay, a mobile wallet service and penetrate into smaller townships across Myanmar. It plans to start its expansion from Mandalay and schedule to offer other modes of transportation such as motorcycles by September.
“We aim to make our services available in tier-1 and tier-2 cities throughout Myanmar,” said an Oway spokesperson.
