Today, we are thrilled to announce the winners of the inaugural Travel Tech Titans, our way of celebrating the game-changing innovators in travel.
Travel is a keystone industry, representing 10% of global GDP before the pandemic. A small number of dominant giants have long controlled the B2B infrastructure behind travel. The first wave of companies — including Amadeus, Sabre and Oracle — laid the foundation for today’s travel infrastructure. The second wave of innovation brought the industry online and led to significant B2C businesses emerging: Expedia, Booking.com, and even Airbnb. Decades have passed and these Goliaths are firmly entrenched, having weaved an intricate web of multi-decade customer and partner relationships. Today, these dominant players have a combined market value exceeding $150 billion.
However, the industry is now facing new and unprecedented challenges: staff shortages, rising customer expectations, transition to carbon neutral, GenZ’s distinct travel tastes, and big tech trying to enter the distribution game. We believe that startups in the industry have a unique position to help solve these challenges. The pandemic ripped the Band-Aid off the industry’s aging infrastructure and exposed the need for rapid tech innovation and modern customer experiences.
With the tide now turning, we believe it’s crucial to acknowledge and celebrate the startups that are doing amazing work in this industry. These companies are the driving force behind the transformation of travel, and we anticipate that many of them will become the pillars of the industry in the future. With this ambition in mind, we are thrilled to present the inaugural Travel Tech Titans award, an initiative that recognizes and honors these startups’ exceptional contributions to the industry’s future.
Almost 200 nominees represent an impressive cross-section of the travel tech industry, with headquarters in 21 countries and more than 12,000 employees, demonstrating the global nature of the industry. Ranging from bootstrapped to pre-IPO, nominees have cumulatively raised $6.9 billion since founding, and raised 128 funding rounds in the past 18 months alone. In a world where the VC market has slowed, that is an astounding recognition of the tailwinds and interest in travel tech. Interestingly, 70% of the nominated companies are focused on infrastructure and data, addressing the longstanding systemic backend issues in travel.
The Travel Tech Titans’ exceptional judges had the difficult job of diligently studying the ~200 nominees to select the most exciting and impactful companies within the group. We’re pleased to share the winners today:
Early stage winners have raised 0-$10M in funding.
- BTP Automation: Aggregates and analyzes corporate travel hotel data from multiple sources, providing real-time visibility on hotel spend plus an end-to-end and automated RFP.
- Deal Engine: Automates manual processes currently done by armies of people in the travel industry.
- Grapevine: First-to-market AI technology that identifies missed retailing opportunities from data and optimizes revenue through intelligent, post-booking remarketing.
- NeoKe: A self-sovereign identity platform enhancing travel experiences like check-ins and border control by streamlining personal data management, prioritizing privacy, and enabling seamless interactions.
- NLX: Delivers world-class conversational AI-powered customer experiences that meet the scale, complexity, and compliance standards of enterprise organizations.
- Thrust Carbon: Analyses multiple data points to provide carbon calculations across the entire travel spectrum, using the ICAO methodology to layer both aircraft model and class into the calculations.
Mid-stage winners have raised $10-$50M in funding.
- Amenitiz: An easy-to-use, all-in-one hotel management software for independent hoteliers, bed-and-breakfast owners, and apartment owners.
- Canary Technologies: Modernizing the hotel tech stack with its award-winning end-to-end guest management system and digital authorizations solutions.
- Fora: A new kind of travel agency, with a modern, tech-forward, and inclusive approach built for the next generation of travel advisors, who can earn flexible income booking trips.
- point.me: The world’s first real time search engine for flights booked using airline miles and credit card rewards points.
- Sensible Weather: A climate risk technology company that aims to change the way people interact with the weather by making the unpredictable predictable, and creating products and experiences that ease stress.
- Sherpa: APIs and widgets that allow airlines and other travel companies to make border crossings a seamless experience.
Late-stage winners have raised $50M+ in funding.
- Cloudbeds: Helps independent properties increase revenue, streamline operations, and delight guests through a single unified system.
- Hopper: A travel app that uses predictive analytics to make travel recommendations.
- Mews: Building the industry’s new standard operating system for properties and services.
- OTA Insight: Empowers hoteliers to deliver smarter revenue, distribution, and marketing outcomes through a market-leading commercial platform.
- Selfbook: Works in tandem with hotels’ existing technology systems to enhance direct conversion, revenue, cash flow control, and security.
- TravelPerk: A platform for SMBs to easily book, manage, and report on business travel, with an industry-leading inventory and ability to help businesses scale on budget.
Please join us in celebrating the winners of the Travel Tech Titans awards, showcasing their remarkable accomplishments and their role as game-changers in the travel tech space. Together, we are forging a brighter future for travel and hospitality.
Written in collaboration with Lucile Cornet.
Ranging from bootstrapped to pre-IPO, nominees have cumulatively raised $6.9 billion since founding, and raised 128 funding rounds in the past 18 months alone.