–     Trip.Biz launches Agent ONE, at Transform 2026
–     Agent ONE is four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle
–     Improves OBT adoption and reduces travel program leakage worldwide

SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trip.Biz, the business travel brand of Trip.com Group, welcomed 200 senior leaders from travel, procurement, finance, and HR to Transform 2026, held at the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore.

The half-day summit set out to challenge one of the most persistent assumptions in global travel management – that Asia Pacific is intrinsically too complex to manage consistently – while unveiling its new Agent ONE AI tool.

Transform 2026 opened with an address from Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song, titled “A New Day One for Business Travel”. Song set the tone for the afternoon by framing Trip.Biz’s next chapter around simplicity and trust, describing a company built on local depth across Asia Pacific and continuing to grow in Europe and around the world.

“Trip.Biz aims to become a leading global AI-powered travel management company (TMC) rooted in APAC and built for the complexity of global business travel”, said Tao Song. “We are building for the new world, in which digital adoption pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, and gives way to innovative tech solutions that help fix real-world challenges”, he added.

Complexity Isn’t the Region, It’s the Model

For multinational travel, procurement and finance teams, APAC has long been treated as the exception that breaks the global travel program – a patchwork of markets with different regulations, payment standards, languages and supplier ecosystems.

Trip.Biz’s position, delivered in the event’s keynote by General Manager, Southeast Asia Eugene Tan, is that this diagnosis is wrong. “The complexity isn’t the APAC region, it’s the model”, Tan explained during his “Rethinking APAC as ONE” keynote. “Every model on the market today breaks somewhere, because none of them delivers consistency and depth at the same time.”

The company points to three structural gaps that persist:

Legacy TMCs offer deep local expertise, but execution depends on the local office involved, resulting in different standards in every market.Digital-only platforms are fast and familiar for routine bookings, but go silent the moment something isn’t routine.In-house, self-managed programs offer full policy control, but no system to catch it when that control breaks down.

Each model delivers one piece of the puzzle, but gaps remain, costing global travel programs time, money, and control.

Trip.Biz’s answer is a single, digital-first, full-service platform, designed to give global programs consistency across markets while absorbing the complexities of APAC – from contracting and settlement to entities and supplier ecosystems – rather than passing them on to the traveller or the program owner.

In practice, this means a single enforced service standard across every market, one consolidated view spanning booking, approvals, and reporting, and a consistent end-to-end experience. This consistency has delivered a 90% SLA compliance rate and an 80%+ satisfaction score across the region Trip.Biz serves.

Product Director Terence Eng built on this during his “Closing Leakage with One Platform” keynote, stating that the model alone doesn’t fully solve the problem, a challenge that extends across global travel programs. “Even with one platform, leakage doesn’t disappear automatically,” Eng said. “To actually reduce it, that platform needs the right content and genuinely good usability. Without both, travellers will still book off platform, even with the right model in place.” Getting this right, Eng noted, is what ultimately increases adoption.

Launching Agent One: Built to Improve OBT Adoption and Fix Leakage

Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song took the stage to launch Agent ONE during his “Building Trust through Simplicity with Agent ONE” keynote, positioning it as the next step in closing the leakage gap. “A platform with the right content and usability gets you most of the way there”, Song said. “AI is how we go further; by continuing to improve the user experience itself, we can drive an even higher adoption rate.”

Agent ONE is a team of four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle:

Planning Agent: ends the multi-site search struggle. Drawing on a broader, multi-source range of content, it converts natural-language requests into personalised, policy-compliant recommendations, understanding traveller preferences, trip purpose, and itinerary logic to simplify search and boost online adoption.Booking Agent: replaces friction-heavy TMC booking flows with guided, conversational booking, keeping more trips inside the OBT. Early performance targets show average booking time dropping from around 45 minutes to 2 minutes, a +90% efficiency improvement, while keeping bookings natively connected to Trip.Biz inventory, pricing, approval, and payment.Approval Agent: auto-approves low-risk requests and routes only exceptions to human review, cutting approval wait times from over an hour to under 3 seconds.Insight Agent: goes beyond static dashboards to proactively surface hidden data patterns and actionable cost-saving opportunities, often missed due to rigid, fixed-view reporting. Insight Agent generates a full travel analysis report, complete with leakage patterns and savings opportunities, in under 7 minutes, a process that previously took analysts up to a week using legacy tools.

The real opportunity for AI is to remove the complexity travellers experience. When AI can understand what a traveller needs, find the right content, and automatically apply company policy, the managed program becomes simpler and more trusted. This helps drive greater adoption and reduce leakage, removing the complexity that has stood in the way of managed travel’s original promise: one place for every trip. “Unlike generic AI assistants, Trip.Biz positions Agent ONE as a purpose-built AI solution”, Song said. “We drive greater business efficiency across each stage of the business travel lifecycle, and help solve the practical challenge faced by our industry.”

Trip.Biz positions the Agent ONE launch not as an incremental product update, but as a marker of how it intends to compete globally: combining the local depth required in complex markets with the consistency, simplicity and intelligence multinational travel programs increasingly expect worldwide. Agent ONE is now available globally across all Trip.Biz-supported markets.

END

About Trip.Biz

Trip.Biz, a digital-first full-service travel management company (TMC) powered by Trip.com Group, provides an all-in-one solution that streamlines business travel with human-centric technology and a people-first approach, offering extensive global content, exceptional service, and ESG solutions. As the fastest-growing TMC in the last few years, we have been trusted by over 15,000 multinational corporations and more than 1,000,000 small to medium-sized enterprises globally.

At Trip.Biz, we are dedicated to providing cost-effective and time-efficient travel solutions, empowering businesses to focus on what truly matters – growth and success. By saving on travel costs and time, our clients can invest more in their core operations and achieve their business outcomes.

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CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As the calendar turns toward the busy holiday season, homes are about to feel crowded with extra decorations, incoming gifts, and festive family gatherings. To help hosts beat the stress before the chaos begins, YouCopia offers customizable storage organizers designed to transform cluttered cabinets, pantries, and fridges into functional, happy spaces.

Known for delivering that coveted “woo hoo” feeling of an instantly organized space in the kitchen or bath, the women-owned brand is showcasing its best-sellers, the Organizing Hero™ Collection, alongside its new MagicTrack™ Rectangle Turntables, to streamline seasonal baking, meal prep, and hospitality at home.

“Getting organized isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, especially when you are trying to coordinate holiday dinners, baking schedules, and house guests,” says YouCopia President Lauren Greenwood. “That’s why our products require absolutely no tools or installation. In less than a few minutes you can clear off kitchen counters and maximize your cabinet and pantry space so you can focus on making memories with the people who matter most.” 

Baking & Meal Prep Efficiency 

StoreMore® Pan & Lid Rack, Cookware Rack, and Bakeware Rack: Features adjustable dividers to hold pots, pans, cookie sheets, muffin tins, and cutting boards upright.SmoothSpin™ Turntables: Perfect for keeping everyday cabinet essentials visible, sorted and within smooth, spinning reach.SpiceStack® Spice Organizer: Features unique pull-out, drop-down drawers, allowing you to instantly view and grab the spice you need for making holiday cookies and pies.FridgeView® Rolling Egg Holder: Keeps eggs visible and accessible for holiday baking. 

Leftover and Food Storage 

StoraBag® Food Bag Dispenser: Holds sandwich, quart, and gallon baggies in one sleek, drawer-fitting unit. This makes bagging holiday cookies, treats, and meal prep ingredients incredibly fast. UpSpace® Cabinet Organizer: Shelves adjust in 1-inch increments to neatly stack boxes of aluminum foil, parchment paper, and plastic wrap, as well as boxed and canned goods. It clears up counter space during heavy baking sessions and keeps wrapping supplies within arm’s reach. StoraLid® Container Lid Organizer: Keeps container lids neatly upright and sorted so you can quickly pack up leftover holiday meals without dealing with a messy cabinet avalanche. 

YouCopia products are available online at YouCopia.com and through major retailers including Amazon, Sam’s Club, Walmart and The Container Store. 

About YouCopia 
Since its founding in 2009, YouCopia has helped millions of people discover the “woo hoo” feeling of being organized. The company creates practical organization products to fit different items throughout the home. With almost effortless set-up (no tools or installation required), anyone can transform their space into a happy place. YouCopia is a WBNEC-Certified Women’s Business Enterprise based in Chicago.

Media Contact: 
Cynthia Greenwood 
847-404-8404 
cynthia@youcopia.com

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SOURCE YouCopia

SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — dtcpay, a Major Payment Institution headquartered in Singapore, today announced the completion of its US$25 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India in April 2026. It is now further anchored by Japan’s leading financial conglomerate, SBI Group, which is investing both through its subsidiary, SBI Ventures Asset Pte Ltd, and through the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund. The round also drew participation from Genedant Capital and existing investor, Mr. Kwee Liong Tek, a prominent Singaporean business leader.

The investment reflects institutional confidence in dtcpay‘s vision of making stablecoins as seamless and accessible as traditional financial services.

Modern Payment Rails for a Digital Economy

Founded by Alice Liu and Band Zhao, dtcpay bridges digital assets with traditional finance through infrastructure that enables businesses and individuals to accept, store, and transact in stablecoins. Its real-time swap engine delivers seamless settlement across stablecoin and fiat currencies, eliminating the operational friction that has slowed mainstream adoption of digital assets. Where traditional cross-border transfers via SWIFT and correspondent banking networks are often slowed by multi-day settlement cycles and layered intermediary fees, dtcpay settles transactions seamlessly, at a fraction of the cost.

dtcpay’s growth has been marked by a series of early moves in the stablecoin payments space. The company launched a Digital Payment Token (DPT) point-of-sale acceptance solution enabling merchants to accept stablecoin payments directly in-store. It also was an early player in Asia to integrate with WalletConnect, extending stablecoin acceptance across more than 700 wallets used by millions of consumers globally. On the consumer side, its partnership with Visa introduced an early stablecoin-to-fiat Visa Infinite card for its customers in the region. The dtcpay Visa card now enables multi-currency spend across both fiat and stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide.

Beyond product innovation, dtcpay was also quick to bring stablecoins to real-world commerce use cases, partnering with BNB Chain to accelerate practical stablecoin adoption and enabling Metro to become the first department store in Singapore to accept stablecoin payments, alongside select hospitality partners such as Capella Singapore.

This additional fundraise enables dtcpay to maintain its pace of execution, scaling its product suite and merchant network while extending its lead in stablecoin payments. It continues to invest in its product roadmap through the remaining half of 2026, including a revamped business portal for enterprise clients and a series of new consumer-friendly features rolled out within the dtcpay app.

As a MAS-licensed Major Payment Institution in Singapore, and one of the select few digital payment companies to hold an Electronic Money Institution license in Luxembourg, dtcpay has built a regulatory foundation required to operate across Singapore, Europe, and other strategically important markets. This regulatory-first approach also underpins the reliability of dtcpay’s infrastructure, enabling institutional clients to transact with the assurance of a fully licensed financial institution.

dtcpay’s execution and regulatory leadership has drawn industry recognition, including Disruptor of the Year and Fintech of the Year at the 2025 Asia Fintech Awards, and Fintech Mentor of the Year for Alice Liu at the SFF FinTech Excellence Awards in 2025. Collectively, these achievements highlight dtcpay’s ability to execute at the intersection of innovation, regulation, and commercial adoption.

Strategic Capital to Fuel Global Expansion

The completion of the Series A brings together a diverse group of investors whose collective expertise spans traditional finance, fintech infrastructure, and global market expansion. Beyond capital, these investors contribute strategic network and domain expertise that will help support the company’s next phase of growth.

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, part of Vertex Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, led the initial tranche of the round. In addition to capital, Vertex brings extensive experience scaling technology companies, providing valuable strategic guidance rooted in deep Southeast Asian market expertise.

SBI Group adds a compelling financial service and fintech pedigree to the shareholder base. As one of Japan’s largest financial services groups, SBI operates across banking, securities, insurance, asset management, and digital assets. It has also been among the most active institutional investors in fintech and digital asset infrastructure globally.

Completing the investor group is Genedant Capital, a Singapore-based fund management firm licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore with over USD 2 billion in assets under management and advisory, and existing investor, Mr. Kwee Liong Tek. Genedant Capital brings in a network of family offices, private wealth investors and institutional relationships across Asia, strengthening access to strategic capital as dtcpay scales internationally. Mr. Kwee continues to increase his commitment, reflecting his long-term conviction in the company’s vision of bringing regulated digital payment infrastructure to global markets.

“We did not raise this round to sustain what we have built. We raised it to fundamentally change how money moves across borders. SBI Group has spent decades shaping financial infrastructure across Japan and beyond, from banking and securities to blockchain and digital assets, and their conviction in dtcpay is validation that compliant, real-world stablecoin payments are not a distant vision but an infrastructure being built right now. Combined with the enduring trust of Mr. Kwee and the support of Genedant Capital, we have the capital, the network, and the momentum to move into every market that is ready for this change. And we are just getting started.” said Alice Liu, Founder and CEO of dtcpay.

“The next chapter for dtcpay is about scale. We are strengthening our infrastructure, deepening partnerships with global financial institutions, and expanding into new regulated markets to make stablecoin payments as seamless and trusted as traditional payment rails. With the backing of our investors, we are accelerating our mission to build the financial infrastructure that enables businesses and consumers to move value globally, instantly, and compliantly,” said Band Zhao, Group Chairman of dtcpay.

“dtcpay has made decisive progress in establishing itself as the region’s leading regulated payment infrastructure that bridges traditional payments and stablecoins. Beyond execution, we were impressed by its licensing-led foundation, strong user experience, and comprehensive product offerings for financial institutions, corporates, and individuals. For SBI Group, which is steadily expanding its business footprint across Singapore and Southeast Asia, this investment marks the beginning of a strategic partnership with dtcpay. It also reflects our broader view to expand the global corridor for digital asset origination between Japan and Southeast Asia through trusted, regulated digital financial infrastructure,” commented Eiichiro So, CEO of SBI Ven Capital.

“dtcpay is building the regulated infrastructure that will bring stablecoin payments into everyday commerce.” said Quek How Jiang, CEO of Genedant Capital. “Beyond capital, we look forward to leveraging our network of strategic investors, industry leaders and institutional relationships to support the company’s commercial expansion and international growth.”

About dtcpay

dtcpay is a Singapore-headquartered payment services company building a globally licensed payment network that delivers seamless settlement, competitive pricing, and innovative payment solutions — Tomorrow’s Payments, Today. Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and holding an Electronic Money Institution licence in Luxembourg, dtcpay is authorised to deliver regulated payment services across the European Economic Area. The company also holds licences and registrations in Hong Kong, Australia, the United States, and Canada, bridging digital assets with traditional finance for businesses and individuals across its licensed jurisdictions.

To learn more, please visit https://dtcpay.com/.

About SBI Group

Founded in 1999, the SBI Group is a comprehensive financial services group and a pioneer of internet-based financial services in Japan, operating across securities, banking and insurance. Beyond these, the Group is also active in asset management, private equity, crypto-assets, and next-generation businesses on a global scale.

Its MAS-regulated Singapore subsidiary, SBI Ven Capital, manages the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund, launched in 2022 to invest in early-stage digital transformation and digital platform companies across Southeast Asia. The fund was established by the SBI Group with NTUitive (a subsidiary of Nanyang Technological University), and Kyobo Securities (a subsidiary of the Kyobo Life Insurance Group), drawing on the partners’ combined business expertise and ecosystems to back the region’s next generation of globally competitive companies.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.sbivencapital.com.sg

About Genedant Capital

Genedant Capital is a Singapore-based fund management firm licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The firm partners with accredited investors, including family offices and private wealth individuals, through a multi-strategy platform spanning private equity, venture capital, public markets, and bespoke investment solutions.

With over USD 2 billion in assets under management and advisory, Genedant Capital combines disciplined investment research, institutional risk management, and deep sector expertise across areas including deep tech, healthcare, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure. The firm seeks to deliver long-term, risk-adjusted returns while supporting high-quality managers and companies with strong growth potential across global markets.

To learn more, please visit https://genedant.com/.

Media Contact: dtcpay marketing team, marketing@dtcpay.com

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SOURCE dtcpay