Caecilia Chu grew up in public housing in Hong Kong. Her father was a postman and her mother a kindergarten teacher. Scholarships took her to the Wharton School and Harvard Business School.
She worked at McKinsey, Citi and two Chinese fintech firms. In 2017 she left and co-founded YouTrip in Singapore with Arthur Mak, aiming to cut cross-border fees and opaque exchange rates.
YouTrip launched in 2018 and had 20,000 users within 48 hours. It raised a pre-Series A in 2019 led by Insignia Ventures Partners, a $30 million Series A in 2021 and a $50 million Series B led by Lightspeed in October 2023.
The company recorded its first net profit in 2022 and launched YouBiz for businesses. It stayed profitable in 2023 and 2024. In 2025 it had about 250 staff and processed about $10 billion in transactions a year.