⁠Built for takeoff: How YouTrip is soaring with Southeast Asia’s travel boom

While many fintechs have focused on growth at all costs, YouTrip has taken a quieter, more measured path—one that has led to profitability.

The travel tech company recorded its first net profit in 2022 and sustained that performance through 2023, processing about US$10 billion in transactions annually. It continued its profitability streak in 2024, doubling its revenue to reach US$30 million.

And now, with the travel industry, which has rebounded sharply post-pandemic, showing no signs of slowing down, the travel tech company is well-positioned to ride that momentum into its next phase of growth: a public listing.

Travel demand is growing, and so is YouTrip

International travel came to a near halt during COVID-19, but since late 2022, it has made a strong comeback, nowhere more so than in the Asia‑Pacific region, which led the global recovery.

The appetite for air travel is showing no signs of waning, particularly in Southeast Asia, which welcomed 121.3 million international visitors in 2024—nearly on par with pre-pandemic figures, with several countries in the region even surpassing their 2019 arrival numbers.

Overall, the broader Asia-Pacific region, including Southeast Asia, experienced a 26% year-on-year surge in travel demand in 2024, and is on track to become the world’s largest travel market in 2025 with revenues hitting S$490 billion—around 10% higher than in 2019.

To meet this growing demand, carriers such as Vietnam’s VietJet Aviation and Malaysia-headquartered AirAsia are slated to expand their fleets, adding more planes to their already large order books.

Here in Singapore, the country is also preparing for increased volumes, with Changi Airport’s Terminal 5 set to accommodate over 50 million passengers annually when completed in the mid-2030s.

This growing appetite for travel directly supports YouTrip’s business—the multicurrency travel wallet benefits whenever users spend overseas or make international purchases.

Image Credit: YouTrip

At its core, YouTrip generates the bulk of its income from merchant processing fees. Every time a user swipes their YouTrip card overseas or makes an international purchase, merchants pay the company a small cut of sales, ranging from 1% to 3%.

Other revenue streams include interest from user balances—when they store money on the app, those funds are placed in deposit accounts, which earn interest payments for the startup.

We place it in a safeguarded account. The money is kept separate from our company’s working capital.

To further drive growth, YouTrip has expanded beyond consumer travel spending to tap into adjacent verticals over the years, including travel insurance policies and remittance services.

It has also branched into the B2B space, launching YouBiz in 2022 to serve businesses processing corporate payments. Although recent figures are unavailable, YouBiz successfully onboarded over 3,000 local SMEs onto its platform within its first year.

From humble beginnings to an IPO

YouTrip’s story is rooted in humble beginnings—both for the company and its founder, Caecilia Chu.

The daughter of a postman and a kindergarten teacher, she grew up in Hong Kong’s low-income public housing.

Caecilia Chu/ Image Credit: YouTrip

But Caecilia was a gifted student with a head for numbers; she earned scholarships to some of America’s top universities, paving the way for a career that included stints at McKinsey, Citi, and two Chinese fintech firms.

In 2017, however, she stepped away from the corporate fast track. Inspired by her father’s struggles to secure a loan to start a business when she was five, she decided to chart her own path.

Drawing on her background in finance and consulting, she co-founded YouTrip in Singapore with her schoolmate, Arthur Mak. The multicurrency wallet enables users to store, convert, and spend money in over 150 fiat currencies without the fees typically charged by banks or money changers.

The response was swift—within 48 hours of launch, YouTrip drew 20,000 users. What began as a two-man operation has evolved into a 250-strong team eight years on, serving millions of users across the region.

While the travel rebound has certainly contributed to YouTrip’s growth, its growth is also fundamentally rooted in solving a clear gap in the payments landscape.

Cross-border payments have long been plagued by high foreign exchange fees and opaque conversion rates. With YouTrip, users enjoy greater transparency and lower costs when spending overseas or making international purchases, an offering that continues to resonate strongly with today’s consumers.

While many startups prioritised rapid growth at the expense of profits, Caecilia has maintained a strong focus on profitability over the years—an approach she intends to carry forward as YouTrip prepares for its next chapter, an IPO.

Although Caecilia is still deciding the timing and venue for YouTrip’s IPO—it could be “a few years” away, possibly in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia—she outlined a potential exit strategy for investors in a 2024 interview with Nikkei Asia.

The plan includes a Series C fundraise this year to build cash buffers, retaining the full US$50 million from its 2023 Series B round. Previously, YouTrip raised US$25.5 million in a Pre‑Series A and US$30 million in its Series A.

Although she hasn’t set a fundraising target for 2025, she stressed that the goal would be to ensure the company is financially secure to list.

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YouTrip’s growth trajectory and sustained profitability suggest a business model that is not only sustainable but also scalable.

Since the rebound of international travel, the company has experienced robust growth—and with the outlook for air travel remaining strong, its upward trajectory is set to continue.

It may not have made headlines like some of its more aggressive peers, but YouTrip’s approach—quiet, deliberate, and rooted in fundamentals—has kept it in the game.

And in today’s environment, that may be what matters most.

• Find out more about YouTrip here.
• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean startups here.

Featured Image Credit: YouTrip