Annual Report 2019

RedBeat Ventures Launched in 2018, RedBeat Ventures (RBV) is the epicentre of the spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology that infuses everything AirAsia does. Constantly re-inventing, we leveraged our physical and digital assets, including the immense data amassed over the years, to create an ecosystem of businesses that would touch our customers in their everyday lives. Through RBV, we are truly evolving from being just an airline into an all-in-one travel and lifestyle company. Better described as the corporate venture arm of AirAsia, RBV puts our capital to use by integrating our business building expertise, best-in-breed technology solutions, talent development programmes and big data insights for digital businesses to thrive in ASEAN. We are focused on developing, incubating and accelerating companies as well as ideas that have the potential to either: a) maximise revenue or generate new revenue streams sustainably; b) help us manage our costs and run our businesses better through increased efficiency and productivity; or c) enhance our guest experience. RBV comprises three main pillars, namely Venture Builder, Tech Academy and Data Centre of Excellence. Venture Builder is where we incubate strategic businesses in which we have a significant majority stake. Some of these businesses are spin-offs from AirAsia’s existing operating units, while others are generated from new ideas contributed by employees or through external acquisitions. These companies are given direct access to AirAsia’s assets and customers to expedite their growth. Through Venture Builder, we seek to enable our guests to enjoy the lifestyles they desire. Our goal is to give them what they want when they want; and, sometimes, even to give them what they don’t yet know they want! Among the companies in this fold are: • AirAsia.com : Marketplace to sell travel and lifestyle related products • BigPay : Fintech company focused on e-wallet, remittance and lending • BIGLIFE : Operator of a loyalty programme for the travel and lifestyle ecosystem • Teleport : Logistics operations encompassing freight, parcel and food businesses • OURSHOP : Full-fledged e-commerce marketplace offering artisanal to luxury items • Santan : F&B company offering ASEAN fast food in- flight and on-ground • FORMAT : Multimedia company offering ASEAN digital content Tech Academy is our training centre established in collaboration with Google. The centre’s goal is to train and produce a steady pool of software engineers, data scientists, AI specialists and other digital experts to fulfil AirAsia’s own needs as well as that of third parties. This is part of our effort to address the gap in technical talent in the region. Data Centre of Excellence is our data consultancy company set up to provide a range of services including data governance, data engineering and data intelligence. The data can be used for descriptive analytics — to learn from past events; diagnostic analytics — to fix issues by identifying root causes; predictive analytics — to be better prepared for what might happen; and prescriptive analytics — to provide recommendations that ultimately assist us in making informed decisions. 106 MORE THAN JUST AN AIRLINE >