Building on pandemic success, South Korean travel company Yanolja plans rapid expansion

SEOUL, July 15 (Reuters) – Yanolja, a South Korean company that provides reservation and other cloud-based systems for hotels and travel agencies, said it aims to increase its 16-fold customers by 2025, building on rapid pandemic-induced growth in Southeast Asia, India and Africa.

Demand for its systems has jumped as the spread of COVID-19 has put companies under intense pressure to introduce contactless services and cut costs. This in turn has made Yanolja a rare beast in the travel industry over the past year – a company that has seen its profits rise.

Founded as an online reservation agency in 2005, Yanolja only launched its cloud activity in 2019. The company, competing with Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) in a highly fragmented sector, now has around 30 000 licensees and this customer base is expected to reach 500,000 by 2025, chief executive Kim Jong-yoon told Reuters in an interview.

“Our sales and profits are expected to improve when the travel constraints related to COVID-19 end,” he said.

Last year, Yanolja reached operating profit of 16.1 billion won ($ 14 million) from a loss of 6.2 billion won, while revenue soared 44% to 192 billion won. won.

Its performance has sparked investor interest and in the over-the-counter market where a limited number of its shares are traded, Yanolja was valued Wednesday at 8.7 trillion won ($ 7.6 billion). This represents a massive increase from its valuation of over $ 1 billion in 2019, when Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and US firm Booking Holdings (BKNG.O) invested $ 180 million.

SoftBank’s Vision fund (9984.T) is in talks to invest in Yanolja, the Financial Times reported last week. Kim declined to comment, as did a representative for SoftBank.

Yanolja previously said he was pursuing an IPO, but Kim also declined to comment on those plans.

The company’s systems allow hotels to manage reservations, accept contactless check-ins and track when guests are not in their rooms so electricity isn’t wasted and rooms can be cleaned more efficiently. . It also offers systems that make it easier for hotels and travel agencies to connect their data.

In addition to some 9,000 hotel customers in South Korea, Yanolja has signed some 6,000 hotels in Southeast Asia where it is present in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. He also plans to enter Vietnam soon after partnering with VNTravel, VNLIFE’s online travel unit.

In India, Yanolja has some 6,000 hotels as clients, while in Africa at least 3,000 hotels are using its services after entering the market in September last year.

($ 1 = 1,149.2000 won)

Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

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