Singapore, SINGAPORE, Nov. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FLYCO, a Singapore-based travel brand and influencer marketing agency co-founded by former X10 Media founder Sky Lim, has secured a strategic investment led by KiN Hotel Group at a valuation of SGD 2.5 million. The investment will support FLYCO's plans to expand its travel product offerings, develop international creator-led experiences, and strengthen partnerships across the hospitality and lifestyle sectors.
Sky Lim, a decade of entrepreneurship & marketing. Founded X10 Media & FLYCO
From building campaigns to building a brand
Sky Lim first made his mark in Southeast Asia’s digital landscape as the founder of X10 Media, one of the region’s early influencer marketing agencies. Established in 2016, X10 Media grew into a network of over 3,000 creators with a combined reach of more than 30 million across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The agency served over 1,000 brands including Pepsi, Singtel, CapitaLand, LVMH, Warner Music, Google, and Toyota, helping shape the influencer marketing ecosystem long before it became mainstream.
The acquisition of X10 Media in 2024 marked a defining milestone; it became the catalyst for Sky to move faster, think bigger, and build beyond marketing, shifting from building campaigns for brands to building a brand of his own.
That vision led to the creation of FLYCO, a modern travel brand designed for a new generation of consumers. At its core, it combines first-of-its-kind luggage personalisation with influencer-led travel experiences, creating a seamless ecosystem that bridges product and experience.
Learning the hard way: building a product brand from scratch
Moving from agency to brand owner was refreshing for Sky, but far from easy. For the first time, the challenges went well beyond creative and media. Together with his co-founders, Sky had to learn the unglamorous side of running a product business: sourcing and vetting factories, negotiating production runs, establishing a reliable supply chain, and managing warehouse storage and inventory so stock was neither sitting idle nor running out during peak travel seasons.
Every decision carried real cost. A delayed shipment meant missed sales, overstocking tied up cash, and a campaign that drove traffic without converting meant ad spend lost for good. That pressure shaped how the team thinks about marketing today: not as a standalone activity, but as one part of a business where product, operations and sales all have to work together.
“In an agency, a campaign ends when the report is delivered. When it’s your own brand, you live with the results, down to every unit sitting in the warehouse,” said Sky Lim. “Building FLYCO with my co-founders taught us what clients actually go through, and it completely changed how we approach marketing for them.”
Walking the Talk: An Agency That Markets Its Own Product
FLYCO’s position in the market is unusual. It is the only influencer marketing agency that also runs its own e-commerce product brand. Instead of advising clients on strategies it has never tested with its own budget, FLYCO builds, sells and markets its luggage line in-house, running its own influencer campaigns and paid ads end to end.
To date, the FLYCO team has run more than 1,800 ads for its own products, systematically testing creatives, hooks, formats and creator content to find out what actually drives sales rather than just views. Those learnings now power FLYCO’s influencer marketing services for brands and marketers, giving clients the same results-driven formats FLYCO uses to grow its own business.
“Most agencies tell you what should work. We can show you what does, because we’ve spent our own money finding out,” said Sky Lim. “Every format we bring to a client has already been tested on our own products first. When we say results-driven, we mean it.”
Local Content is Overdone, Content Beyond Singapore is Key
For years, influencer marketing in Singapore has followed a familiar playbook: unboxing videos, product demonstrations at home, before-and-after comparisons, and brand features filmed at the same handful of locations across the island. These formats have been repeated thousands of times over the past decade, making it increasingly difficult for brands to stand out in crowded social feeds.
FLYCO takes creators beyond Singapore for a backdrop switch that changes the experience and the way audiences discover brands. Through curated overseas retreats, FLYCO brings creators, consumers and brands together in destinations where products become part of real activities, shared experiences and authentic storytelling.
Rather than sending creators a product and hoping for a compelling video, FLYCO works with brands to design purposeful 3-4 day itineraries around their marketing objectives.
Each activity, location and content opportunity is planned to maximise the value of every creator collaboration, allowing multiple products to be featured naturally across different settings, experiences and storylines.
Beyond a change of backgrounds, hundreds of pieces of content are generated from one trip that feels less like conventional advertising, captures attention through unfamiliar surroundings and gives brands more mileage from every creator video.
Leading brands including Sony, Webull, WISE, Sealy, JisuLife, MariBank have partnered with FLYCO, integrating their products into real-world experiences through on-ground activations, creator content and social storytelling.
“Your overseas campaign videos outperformed all our other videos on both organic and paid reach.”, as shared by one of FLYCO’s brand partners.
By combining licensed travel infrastructure with creator-led experiences and professional content production, FLYCO is building a new model for brand activation: one where a single overseas campaign creates meaningful real-world engagement and a library of digital content that can continue delivering value long after the trip ends.
Backed for the Next Stage
Looking ahead, FLYCO plans to expand its global footprint through new product innovations, international travel experiences, and strategic partnerships, positioning itself at the intersection of travel, lifestyle, and community.
Building on this momentum, FLYCO has recently secured a strategic investment at a valuation of SGD $2.5 million, led by KiN Hotel Group. This partnership marks a significant step forward for FLYCO, bringing not only capital but also strong strategic alignment in hospitality, lifestyle, and experiential travel.
With KiN Hotel Group’s backing, FLYCO is positioned to accelerate its vision of creating a seamless travel ecosystem - where product, experience, and community come together. The collaboration also opens up opportunities for tighter integration between FLYCO’s influencer-led travel experiences and premium destinations, further strengthening its offering to modern travellers & brands.
Sky Lim & Johnathan Lim, co-founders of FLYCO
About FLYCO
FLYCO is a homegrown luggage & travel marketing agency that combines customisable luggage, from engraved names to colour combinations, with curated creator-led travel experiences. It also provides influencer marketing and content services to brands, built on formats tested on its own e-commerce brand.
Media Contact
Sky Lim
Email: skylim@flyco.sg
Phone: +65 8548 1784
Website: www.flycotravel.com
corporate.flycotravel.com
