Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 6): AirAsia Group Bhd chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the low-cost carrier's venture capital fund in the United States called RedBeat Capital complements its culture of embracing open innovation and will help to bridge Silicon Valley and Asean.

In a tweet from his handle @tonyfernandes yesterday, he said: "The fund complements our culture of embracing open innovation and more importantly it will further help to bridge Silicon Valley and Asean."

The fund, launched on March 4, will focus on post-seed-stage startups in travel and lifestyle, financial technology, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

Reuters yesterday reported that AirAsia is partnering with San Francisco-based 500 Startups, which invests in young fast-growing companies.

RedBeat Capital will have a base in San Francisco and access to 500 Startups' deal flow, it cited AirAsia as saying.

The airline group has initially allocated about US$10 million (RM40.9 million), and the fund has already invested in a couple of companies, AirAsia deputy chief executive Aireen Omar was quoted as saying.

At 11.19am, AirAsia rose 0.72% or 2 sen to RM2.81, with 2.25 million shares traded.

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