OCTOBERASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOMGATHERN RAISES $72M, EYES IPO AND GCC EXPANSION BY 2028Gathern, Saudi Arabia's leading vacation rental platform, has raised US$72 million in Series B funding, signaling a major step in its growth journey.The round, which closed last month, was led by Sanabil Investments and Saudi Technology Ventures, underscoring investor confidence in Saudi Arabia's rapidly expanding alternative hospitality sector.Founded in 2016, Gathern has positioned itself as a key player competing with global giants such as Airbnb, offering a wide range of vacation rentals across the Kingdom. The company turned profitable in 2023 and reported a 100 percent year-on-year revenue growth, though specific figures were not disclosed.Key Highlights· Gathern raised US$72M Series B from Sanabil Investments & STV· Plans to add car rentals, flights, and experiences in 2025· Eyes IPO in 2028 after expanding into GCC marketsWith the fresh capital, Gathern plans to diversify its offerings beyond accommodations by adding car rentals, flights, and curated travel experiences starting in 2025. This expansion aims to transform the platform into a one-stop travel ecosystem catering to domestic and international travelers.International expansion is also a priority, with Kuwait and Bahrain as the first target markets, followed by other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Looking ahead, CEO Latifah Altamimi revealed that Gathern is preparing for an IPO in 2028, aligning with its vision of becoming a regional travel-tech leader.This funding milestone positions Gathern to capitalize on Saudi Arabia's booming tourism sector, driven by Vision 2030's push to diversify the economy and boost domestic and inbound travel. ALIBABA LAUNCHES QWEN3-OMNI AI TO RIVAL CHATGPT-4Alibaba has introduced new AI models, including its flagship Qwen3-Omni, positioned as a direct competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, ahead of the company's annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou.Qwen3-Omni is a multimodal AI model capable of processing text, audio, image, and video inputs, delivering outputs in both text and audio formats.The model supports 119 text languages and 19 spoken languages, with the ability to generate spoken responses in 10 languages, enhancing its usability for global users. Three versions of Qwen3-Omni are available on open-source platforms, including Hugging Face and GitHub, allowing developers to experiment and build custom applications.Key Highlights· Alibaba launches Qwen3-Omni, a multimodal AI to rival ChatGPT-4· Supports 119 text and 19 spoken languages with open-source access· New tools include Qwen-Image-Edit-2509 and Qwen3-TTS-FlashAlongside Qwen3-Omni, Alibaba also released Qwen-Image-Edit-2509, an improved open-source image editing tool, and Qwen3-TTS-Flash, a proprietary text-to-speech model available through Alibaba Cloud. These tools aim to support developers, businesses, and researchers looking for scalable, multilingual AI solutions. Alibaba claims that Qwen3-Omni variants outperform both its earlier models and several international competitors in select benchmark tests, although independent verification is pending.The launch underscores Alibaba's ambitions to strengthen its presence in the global AI race, challenging major players such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta with its rapidly advancing AI ecosystem.
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