Yatango to tangle itself in travel

Yatango to tangle itself in travel

Why Yatango is about to become a travel industry household name.

Despite being relatively unknown to the travel industry, Aussie-based tech platform Yatango has announced plans to venture into the OTA space, launching Yatango Travel, an online platform later this year.

The company, which launched as a mobile phone and internet operator reselling the Optus network, has bigger plans to offer a variety of services across industry verticals after announcing it would list on the ASX at the end of July. This latest venture into travel and, a banking portal to follow, is expected to spike interest in potential investors, as per a report in the AFR.

Yatango has reportedly already signed partnership agreements with Expedia and Sabre for its online travel portal, and founder Andy Taylor told the AFR it would offer Australian customers “the best option for booking entire holidays, creating an online itinerary in one place”.

The motive behind Expedia’s involvement with the company as it offers similar services, Taylor told the AFR, would be in a similar vein to that spurs Optus which both supplies and competes against its own mobile offering to get involved, as it gives them an “ability to participate in innovative technology, and to reach a younger, millennial demographic”.

“Expedia is trying to be all things to all people and we went to them with a very focused business case, which they were very keen to get behind,” Taylor told the paper.

“The problem with Expedia and all the other sites is that they only cater for one destination. You book your flights and then have to go through a clunky process to book your hotels, and it is really hard to add on additional destinations and plan an end to end holiday, unless you want to take a pre-packaged deal that gives you no room to move.”

Yatango is reportedly seeking to raise $8 million at 10¢ a share before its IPO and in May announced three big names to its board – iiNet founder and ex-chief executive Michael Malone, ActewAGL founder and ceo John Mackay, and founder of Virgin Mobile and former Orange ceo Tom Alexander.

“I think the fact that we have got such high-calibre people, who have built huge consumer businesses, has added another level of credibility to what we are trying to do,” Taylor told the AFR.

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