Joe Lu, CEO and co-founder of HeyMax
Singapore-based journey loyalty startup HeyMax has raised US$11 million in a Collection A spherical led by Peak XV Companions, because it accelerates plans to construct a cross-border, AI-driven rewards platform for frequent travellers throughout the area.
The spherical contains Betatron Enterprise Group as a strategic investor, with current backers January Capital and Tenity doubling down.
Angel buyers within the spherical embody Rob Rosenstein, co-founder and chairman of Agoda, and David Lee, former president of Visa (APAC), with which HeyMax has a partnership.
Additionally Learn: HeyMax hits US$6M income milestone, eyes Asia Pacific growth
Based in 2023 by 4 former Meta engineers, HeyMax is betting that the fragmentation of loyalty programmes throughout airways, lodges, banks, and retailers has change into a structural downside as journey rebounds throughout Asia Pacific.
From siloed factors to a common journey pockets
At its core, HeyMax is constructing a layer that aggregates incomes, optimisation, and redemption throughout loyalty ecosystems utilizing its personal forex, Max Miles.
As a substitute of gathering factors that expire or sit idle in separate programmes, customers earn Max Miles throughout retailers and playing cards, then redeem them throughout airways, lodges, or present playing cards — or switch them into greater than 30 airline and lodge programmes.
The platform positions itself much less as a “factors app” and extra as a common journey pockets — one which abstracts away the complexity of switch ratios, blackout guidelines and card optimisation.
Additionally Learn: What journey tech can seem like for the journey business’s revival
“Journey more and more shapes how individuals spend and save throughout Asia-Pacific, however rewards stay fragmented throughout borders,” stated Joe Lu, CEO and co-founder of HeyMax. “Our purpose is to unify incomes and redemption so frequent travellers can seize worth extra simply — and so companions can interact them extra successfully.”
Early traction and regional growth
Since elevating a US$2.7 million seed spherical in July 2024, HeyMax claims it has:
Grown to over 150,000 customers
Issued greater than 500 million Max Miles yearly
Achieved 5x year-on-year income progress
Reached an annualised income run charge of US$6 million
Set its sights on triple-digit annual GMV progress over the following two years
In 2025, the corporate additionally acquired Hong Kong-based fintech krip, utilizing the deal to enter Hong Kong as its first worldwide market.
With the Collection A, HeyMax plans to increase into Japan, Taiwan, and Australia by the top of 2026, whereas deepening airline, lodge, service provider and card partnerships throughout the area.
Why buyers are betting on journey loyalty—once more
Journey loyalty is again on buyers’ radar, however this time with a special thesis. Fairly than loyalty as a branding expense, funds more and more view it as infrastructure — a means for banks, airways, and retailers to affect spend, seize information, and drive retention at scale.
HeyMax cites third-party information projecting the Asia-Pacific loyalty market to achieve US$60 billion by 2029, alongside IATA figures exhibiting regional passenger visitors at greater than 120 per cent of pre-pandemic ranges.
On the identical time, over 75 per cent of customers are enrolled in at the least one loyalty programme; but important worth nonetheless goes unused as a consequence of fragmentation, friction, and poor redemption experiences.
For Peak XV, the chance is structural. “Many loyalty programmes right this moment have change into passive data-collection instruments quite than drivers of actual engagement,” stated Rohit Agarwal, Managing Director at Peak XV. “Greater than 40 per cent of worldwide card revenues—over US$100 billion—are spent on loyalty and rewards. HeyMax is utilizing know-how and suggestions loops to show that spend into precise consumption and loyalty.”
AI because the loyalty unlock
A key focus for HeyMax post-funding is doubling down on what it calls an “AI-empowered rewards expertise.”
In apply, AI is more and more getting used throughout the loyalty stack to handle long-standing ache factors:
Spend optimisation: recommending which card or service provider delivers the very best reward for a transaction
Redemption steerage: navigating blackout dates, switch ratios and airline availability
Actual-time nudges: prompting customers on when to earn, redeem, or switch based mostly on journey intent
Fraud and abuse detection: figuring out artificial or exploitative earn-and-burn behaviour
Associate focusing on: serving to manufacturers purchase loyalty-driven demand with clearer attribution
HeyMax’s current options — corresponding to FlyAnywhere (fixed-rate airline redemptions) and Card Maximiser (automated card suggestions) –level in the direction of a future the place loyalty is now not passive accumulation, however an actively guided loop.
The place the sector is heading
Throughout Asia Pacific, journey loyalty is converging in the direction of a couple of clear tendencies:
Interoperability over exclusivity, as customers demand rewards that transfer throughout programmes and borders
Actual-time worth, changing delayed gratification with on the spot earn and on the spot redeem
Consolidation, as platforms race to assemble stock, distribution and partnerships
AI-led orchestration, with loyalty platforms sitting above banks, airways and retailers as working programs
HeyMax’s Collection A positions it squarely in that shift — much less as a shopper rewards app, and extra as a programmable layer for the way travel-driven spending and loyalty circulation throughout the area.
Additionally Learn: Southeast Asia’s journey tech increase: The startups powering a US$73B business
Whether or not that guess pays off will depend upon execution, partnerships, and the way a lot complexity customers are really keen handy over to algorithms, however the race to personal Asia-Pacific’s journey loyalty stack is clearly again on.
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