BuzzAR, a Singapore-based mixed reality and artificial intelligence (AI) company, has raised $1.16 million from HSBC Revolving Credit Facilities.
BuzzAR said in a statement on Friday that the firm is using the funding to fuel its expansion in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region.
It is noted that the firm is working with the government agencies in Saudi Arabia such as Saudi Tourism Authority, to drive tourism flow between the Asia Pacific (APAC) and MENA region through its own platform, Buzz AI Experience (BAE), an AI powered Travel Platform.
With funding from HSBC Revolving Credit Facilities, BuzzAR has increased its revenue in Saudi Arabia and is on track to bring in $3.2 billion of tourism dollars to Saudi Arabia by 2026.
BuzzAR was founded by Bell Beh and Ken Lim in 2018 and has hit significant milestones since, including a $3.8 fundraise in 2022, and the launch of BAE.
BuzzAR saw the MENA region as having the potential to be a prime tourist destination and began expanding into the market in 2022.
It is noted that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) Vision 2030 aims to diversify the economy, with a $64 billion investment plan geared to help the entertainment sector contribute more than $23 billion, or 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
150 million tourists are targeted for 2030 and Saudi Arabia is facing a shortage of registered tour guides.
With BAE, tour guides can handle bigger groups, target a wider audience, and free up their bandwidth to further personalize services and enhance the tourist experience.
Since HSBC’s fund injection, BuzzAR has boosted its revenue in Saudi Arabia and made key hires, growing a dedicated team to open up tourism channels connecting APAC to MENA.
This development helped cement a partnership between BuzzAR and the Saudi Tourism Authority, to further develop BAE for the MENA region.
BAE is trained to relate to the emotions of each user to be a digital tour guide.
Beyond offering storytelling and personalized content discovery for travelers, it has built-in booking and payment functionalities to seamlessly handle transactions for travelers on the go.
BuzzAR through its fintech arm, BuzzPay, has worked together with the local Saudi Arabia banking partners, hospitality stakeholders to run BAE’s refinement and deeper integration.
The goal is to bring in 1 million travelers and drive Saudi Riyals 12 Billion which is $3.2 billion spend in equivalent by 2026.
“We designed BAE as an AI platform that can supercharge the hospitality industry. The triumphs and lessons we learned in Asia gave us the insight to draw the parallels and differences to the MENA market,
“We wish to open tourism channels across the world with BAE, and make every journey smarter, seamless and joyful,” said Bell Beh, Chief Executive Officer of BuzzAR.
BuzzAR is a Singaporean and Saudi Arabian based AI company that specializes in building an AI powered travel platform for “discover, book and pay”, all in one travel platform, specializing in welcoming APAC visitors, especially the Chinese tourists.