Society Pass Inc (SoPa), a Vietnam-based next generation digital ecosystem, announced Monday the acquisition of NusaTrip, a leading Jakarta-based online travel agency (OTA) in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia (SEA).

The NusaTrip acquisition extends SoPa’s business reach into the booming SEA regional travel industry and marks SoPa’s first foray into Indonesia as well as adds to SoPa’s growing ecosystem of technology-enabled companies located in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, SoPa said in a statement.

Established in 2013 as the first Indonesian OTA accredited by the International Air Transport Association, NusaTrip pioneered offering a comprehensive range of airlines and hotels to Indonesian corporate and retail customers. With its first mover advantage, the firm has onboarded +1.2 million registered users, +500 airlines and +200,000 hotels around the world as well as connected with over 80 million unique visitors.

“We happily welcome NusaTrip into our ever-expanding SoPa ecosystem. NusaTrip seamlessly blends into our user and merchant growth strategy as we enter yet another leading SEA market. We combine the robust technology and operational breadth of NusaTrip’s e-commerce travel platform with our extensive brand building experience in SEA,” said Dennis Nguyen, Society Pass Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“With this acquisition, SoPa now cross-pollinates and integrates our six verticals (loyalty, lifestyle, food and beverage, telecoms, digital media and travel) into one cohesive loyalty and e-commerce platform to provide enhanced products and services for our consumers and merchants throughout the largest countries of SEA,

“SoPa has grown from strength to strength in 2022 as we opportunistically acquire market leading companies and partner with visionary entrepreneurs, underlining our unique aggregator approach that reflects immediate returns in terms of increased revenue generation and cost optimisation,” he added.

SoPa Indonesia Country Manager Patrick Soetanto said the group will expand NusaTrip’s services to support future growth pathways in more SEA countries in the very near future by integrating more travel product lines in its mix and developing more competitive products for a much larger international and regional audience.

Well-positioned to benefit from a high-growth travel industry, Indonesia’s and SEA’s inbound and outbound travel revenues are expected to continue soaring as increasingly more consumers engage in post-pandemic travel. This marked increase in demand is driven by strong government initiatives to boost tourism, the rise of Indonesia’s burgeoning middle class and strong internet penetration, which enables more Indonesians to easily book flights and hotels through OTAs.

“NusaTrip is proud to officially partner with SoPa. By joining forces with SoPa’s extensive ecosystem and large user and merchant bases in SEA, we are thrilled about the combined marketing capabilities,

“With the revival of the travel market throughout SEA in 2Q/3Q 2022, NusaTrip aims to dramatically increase its customer base by offering the region’s business and leisure travellers more competitive, no-surcharge hotel and flight fares, convenient payment methods, and speedy itinerary bookings with our user-friendly platform,” said Menak Galumbang, Co-Founder of Nusatrip.

As a digitally-focused loyalty and data marketing ecosystem in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand and with offices located in Angeles, Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, and Singapore, SoPa is an acquisition-focused e-commerce holding company operating six interconnected verticals (loyalty, lifestyle, F&B, telecoms, digital media, and travel), which seamlessly connects millions of registered consumers and hundreds of thousands of registered merchants/brands across multiple product and service categories throughout SEA.

Its business model focuses on analysing user data through its SoPa loyalty platform and circulation of its universal loyalty points or Society Points. The SoPa loyalty platform drives customer acquisition and increases customer retention for merchants.

Since its inception, SoPa has amassed over 3.3 million registered consumers and over 205,000 registered merchants/brands onto its platform. It has invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture with cutting-edge components to effectively scale and support its consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.

SoPa leverages technology to tailor a more personalised experience for customers in the purchase journey and to transform the entire retail value chain in SEA. It operates Leflair.com, Vietnam’s leading lifestyle e-commerce platform, Pushkart.ph, a popular grocery delivery company in Philippines, Handycart.vn, a leading online restaurant delivery service based in Vietnam, Gorilla Networks, a Singapore-based, web3-enabled mobile blockchain network operator, Thoughtful Media Group, a Bangkok-based social commerce-focused premium digital video multi-platform network, and Mangan, the leading local restaurant delivery service in Philippines.

Vietnam’s Society Pass acquires Thai media firm Thoughtful Media Group