TOKYO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO:9434) today announced it led a USD 19.5 million Series B investment round into Splyt Group Ltd. (“Splyt”), a scale-up integrator of mobility apps and travel platforms headquartered in London. SoftBank Corp. will receive a significant share in the company, and other investors in the round included American Express Ventures, the strategic investment group of American Express. In conjunction with this investment, SoftBank Corp. and Splyt also formed a business partnership, and Daichi Nozaki, SoftBank Corp. VP and Head of the Global Business Division, will join Splyt’s board of directors to further accelerate its global expansion.
Splyt makes global travel easier by enabling the seamless integration of mobility services into travel platforms, superapps and wallets. By interconnecting apps, end users can access multiple services on a single app, which greatly increases convenience for the user and loyalty to the app provider. Splyt has an extensive track record of such interconnections, having already integrated ridehailing into major platforms including Alipay, Grab, and Booking.com. Splyt’s strengths lie in this vast amount of interconnections and its wide range of partnerships. With this investment, Splyt aims to expand its leading global network with additional mobility services, including bikesharing and scooters.
In addition to expanding its core telecommunications business, a key part of SoftBank Corp.’s “Beyond Carrier” growth strategy includes promoting its array of smartphone-based services, including those of group companies. However, since many app platforms operate independently of each other, potential synergies that could be possible through app integration have not been sufficiently realized. By collaborating with Splyt, SoftBank Corp. will be able to interconnect the different app platforms of group companies and Splyt’s partners to realize superapps that seamlessly combine multiple services into a single interface. This will make it possible to maximize synergies between different services.
Philipp Mintchin, Co-founder and CEO of Splyt: “Our aim is to enable our partners to provide seamless mobility solutions to their customers, letting them feel at home anywhere in the world. It’s a great pleasure to collaborate with some of the best companies in the world, and to be able to welcome SoftBank Corp. and American Express Ventures as investors to Splyt.”
Ken Miyauchi, President & CEO of SoftBank Corp.: “With the continued widespread adoption of smartphones, apps are becoming increasingly integral to people’s daily lives when they shop, eat and travel. The proliferation of different platforms, however, is giving rise to the need for superapps that combine multiple functions into one app. Splyt is a global leader in integrating different mobility, wallet, travel and other platforms, and will enable us to promote superapps to further grow usage and our customer base. Splyt’s technology and extensive partner network will also help us leverage the strengths of SoftBank’s assets and deliver on our ‘Beyond Carrier’ growth strategy. We look forward to building a long-lasting collaboration with Philipp and his outstanding team.”
About Splyt
Splyt is the leading global mobility network. Its technology integrates ridehailing, airport transfers, bikesharing and scooters into our partners’ travel platforms, enabling them to unlock the world for their customers.
Splyt works with a trusted mobility network in over 2,000 cities and 150 countries to enable travel platforms, wallets and superapps to keep their customers within their own app, improving customer loyalty and increasing revenue.
With a current staff of 50, Splyt is a talent-heavy scale-up based in London and Singapore that includes 17 nationalities and speaks over 20 languages. For more information, please visit www.splyt.com.
About SoftBank Corp.
Guided by the SoftBank Group’s corporate philosophy, “Information Revolution – Happiness for everyone,” SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) combines telecommunications services with cutting-edge technologies to create and operate new businesses. SoftBank Corp. serves more than 45 million mobile consumer and enterprise subscribers in Japan, and as part of its “Beyond Carrier” strategy, is redefining industries by leveraging its unique strengths as a network operator to fully harness the power of 5G, big data, AI, IoT, robotics and other key technologies. To learn more, please visit www.softbank.jp/en/
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