Today everyone is simply dreaming of their next holiday. This is just one of the many reasons that has inspired Kylie Chim, student of Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme and founder of Trally, to develop her marketplace app.
.png?sfvrsn=b45edd57_3)
Kylie Chim, Founder of Trally
Having been a hotel manager at a local budget hotel for the past seven years, Kylie has met countless people who, like her, are strapped for time, money and energy to explore the world. The pandemic has only made the existing problem more prevalent and people around the world are looking for a way to travel despite unceasing restrictions.
Trally aims to do just that – it allows hosts from countries to conduct virtual tours for guests from anywhere in the world. The idea caught on with over 100 experienced and high-quality tour hosts globally and they have since delivered tours to over 500 guests so far. There are also many who support the idea and its potential, with well over $500,000 raised for the startup so far.
With the help of SUSS Entrepreneurship programme being an accredited mentor partner of Enterprise Singapore, Kylie secured the SGFounder Grant through the Alibaba Cloud-SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme. The programme has mentors in various industries and a key Entrepreneur-in-Residence who has been valuable to the development and growth of the startup. More recently, in the China-ASEAN New Smart City Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, Trally was among the top six of all startups competing in the ‘Comprehensive’ category, where businesses had to have a working prototype of their products. From the competition, she received 15,000RMB for her startup and will be gaining additional support to bring their business and idea into China.
Today, Kylie is in discussions with Singapore and Macau’s Tourism Boards to come onboard as a partner and is planning on expanding their offerings. Top of the list now would be games and events, to further enhance the experience that different groups of guests can enjoy on the platform, catering to leisure as well as corporate needs like staff welfare and activities.