AirAsia today announced it is launching a $60-million venture capital fund in the United States to invest in and support scalable startups in the travel and lifestyle, financial technology, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity sectors that want to enter or expand their presence in Southeast Asia.

The Malaysian low-cost carrier’s digital venture arm RedBeat Ventures is launching the fund in partnership with 500 Startups, a San Francisco-based seed stage startup accelerator and venture capital firm. 500 Startups has supported more than 2,000 companies including Twilio, SendGrid and Grab, a Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm.

“Talent is both universal and abundant in all corners of the world, especially in Southeast Asia,” said Christine Tsai, CEO of 500 Startups. “Moreover, this region has more internet users than the US, which presents a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs. To have an industry titan like AirAsia building a bridge with Silicon Valley through its partnership with 500 is exciting for our startups, many of which have ambitions for global scale.”

Source Credit: Apex
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