Plug & Play Tech Center, the Silicon Valley-based company that bridges the gap between innovators and corporations, is looking to launch its Travel & Hospitality vertical in Singapore to plug into what it feels is a market gap waiting to be addressed.

It held its first event last week in Singapore, inviting up to 20 startups to make their pitches to an audience of travel corporations.

Managing Partner of Plug & Play Travel & Hospitality, Amir Amidi, who was in Singapore to host the half-day event, said this introduction was to gauge the interest of corporate partners in the APAC region.

Amir Amid sees Plug & Play’s role as bringing “disruptive innovation” to the attention of corporate partners, rather than them seeing it as a threat.

The APAC Travel & Hospitality Center of Innovation will operate out of its Singapore office which looks after its interests in Southeast Asia and has investments in Singapore and Indonesia, and is expanding to Thailand and the Philippines. Its investments range from fintech to mobility, IoT, ad tech, sustainability and now travel and hospitality.

Plug & Play brought Travel & Hospitality to China last year and opened an office in Shanghai, but Amidi says that they would like to explore opening up Singapore to address the ASEAN market where Plug & Play already has Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Changi as partners. AirAsia is also among its portfolio of clients.

Amidi said the intention is also to invest in APAC-based travel startups. “It is a hot spot right now and we are missing out,” he said.

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