Capital A, MyTukar lost key execs to Carsome in 2021

Additional reporting by Putra Muskita

2021 was a year of change for AirAsia and MyTukar, the Malaysian unit of Singaporean automotive marketplace Carro.

Covid-19 forced AirAsia to rethink its businesses amid pandemic-induced restrictions that crushed the aviation sector.

The budget carrier was then reborn as Capital A, a holding company with diversified interests, primarily in tech. It bolstered its super app but still kept a few fingers in the airline and logistics businesses.

Meanwhile, MyTukar underwent a reorganization and looked to grow its market share soon after sealing a US$30 million investment from Carro in 2019.

But, along with the change in name and strategic shifts, came major rejigging in the leadership of each company.

Tech in Asia has found that about 13 junior and senior executives from AirAsia’s marketing and tech divisions, as well as 12 junior and senior staff from MyTukar’s business development division, left to join Carsome in 2021.

While such corporate moves are commonplace, a former AirAsia employee with knowledge of the matter says the episode was unique as many who left the airline claimed to have been poached to beef up Carsome’s digital marketing and tech units.

See also: Carsome and Carro: A neck-and-neck race to transform how people buy cars

The resignations have irked AirAsia co-founder and CEO Tony Fernandes, who in a February 3 LinkedIn post, took a swipe at his former colleagues, saying they “have never quite performed well in their new companies.”

While he did not explicitly mention Carsome, Fernandes also hit out at “new digital unicorns who actually have not achieved much” for poaching ex-AirAsia staff.

Carsome is said to be Malaysia’s first tech unicorn following its share-swap deal with internet investment firm Catcha in 2021.

“It takes a lot more than one person and that [is] the beauty and as people leave we replace them with better people,” Fernandes wrote in the post.

AirAsia

MyTukar