Attendees | January 8th Travel Tech Investment Symposium
Investors
Raj Singh | JetBlue Technology Ventures | Managing Director
JTV invests in and partners with early stage tech startups innovating in the travel and hospitality industries.
Business Activity: Venture Capital, Travel, Hospitality, Travel Technology, Innovation, and Corporate Venture Capital
Website: http://www.jetblueventures.com/
Tyler Carrico | Thayer Ventures | Investor
Based in San Francisco, Thayer Ventures (Thayer) invests in technology companies that focus on the hospitality industry. This industry, which represents over $10 trillion in annual global economic activity, is thriving with entrepreneurial activity due to the disruptive changes within the sector which began over a decade ago. Recent consumer trends have accelerated this disruption for operators across the hospitality and travel world, creating unprecedented opportunities for technology providers to make significant inroads into what was previously a closed market.
Business Activity: Venture Capital & Private Equity
Website: http://www.thayerventures.com/
Matthew Walters | JAWS Ventures | Investor
Consumer & consumer technology focused growth-equity and venture investing. Jaws Ventures is part of JAWS, the private investment office of Barry Sternlicht (Starwood Capital).
Business Activity: Venture Capital & Private Equity
Cristina Moyano de Navascués | Amadeus Ventures | Investment Manager
Amadeus Ventures invests in early stage startups sitting at the crossroads of technology and travel. We provide funding, industry expertise, technology and customer reach to our portfolio companies.
Business Activity: Venture Capital, GDS, IT and Travel technology
Website: https://amadeus.com/en/ventures
Vinny Olmstead | Vocap Investment Partners | Managing Director and Founder
Vocap Investment Partners provides capital to management teams innovating in large, opportunistic markets. Our firm is led by experienced operators that assist management in creating value over a two to five year horizon. We focus on investment opportunities on the East Coast of the US, and specialize in software, technology-enabled businesses, and healthcare.
Business Activity: Venture Capital, Consumer Internet / E-commerce, Financial Technology, Advertising Technology, Healthcare Technology, Enterprise Software, and Technology-Enabled Businesses
Website: http://www.vocappartners.com
Miriam Moscovici | BCD Travel | Investor & Director of Emerging Technologies
Investment & Director of Emerging Technology for BCD Travel. BCD Travel combines service leadership with flexible technology, intelligent data analysis and strategic solutions to provide global business travel management.
Business Activity: Corporate travel management, Travel program audits, Travel safety and security, Corporate travel savings analysis, Meetings and special events, Traveler engagement, Hotel program audits
Website: https://www.bcdtravel.com/
Bruce Rosenberg | HotelPlanner & Meetings.com | President, COO
HotelPlanner.com was founded in 2002 and has since achieved a global portfolio of 50,000 hotels. According to Experian, the company is a top 50 travel site. HotelPlanner.com focuses its efforts on the group market to help clients select the right property for their event, combining technology with a highly experienced staff of professional meeting planners to deliver outstanding service.
Business Activity: Investment & Acquisitions, Group hotel bookings, Hotels, Meetings & Events, Venues
Website: http://www.hotelplanner.com
Owen Davies | Enthuse Group | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Enthuse Group owns and operates a network of brands in special interest media and e-commerce primarily in the US and UK. Through our international portfolio of specialist media brands, we build and serve loyal, engaged communities built around shared enthusiasms and pastimes.
Business Activity: Investment & Acquisitions, Travel Media, Travel eCommerce, Print Media
Website: https://enthusegroup.com/
Maximilian Winter | Neue Fund | Founder
Venture capital investors supporting entrepreneurs launch exponential organizations generally with an impact and sustainability element. Particular interest in healthcare, education, environmental, automotive and manufacturing technology. We are passionate about supporting humanity and our ecosystem to a balanced state of health and peak performance.
Business Activity: Venture Capital & Private Equity
Ron Tarro | New World Angels | Angel Investor
New World Angels provides private equity capital to early-stage entrepreneurial companies. Ron invests through New World Angels, lead sourcing and screening of New World Angels deal flow, participate in due diligence on New World investment decisions, and provide advisory support for companies in the New World portfolio. New World Angels is typically a lead or co-investor in transactions totaling between $500,000-$2.5 million. 16 investments, $14M invested.
Business Activity: Angel Investments, Venture Capital
Website: http://www.newworldangels.com
Evan Gross | New World Angels | Angel Investor
New World Angels provides private equity capital to early-stage entrepreneurial companies. Evan is an experienced and passionate in the field of Travel, Tourism, Hospitality, and Guest Experience. New World Angels is typically a lead or co-investor in transactions totaling between $500,000-$2.5 million. 16 investments, $14M invested.
Business Activity: Angel Investments, Venture Capital
Website: http://www.newworldangels.com
Alexander Senchak | Angel Investor
Angel investor focused on Travel Technology. Member investor in Hub Angel’s Investment Group. Invested in Limoliner. I support organizations in growth mode by designing revenue growth plans and organization wide strategies to meet long term goals. This can include a parallel investment and sales training.
Business Activity: Angel Investments
Ben Kaplan | Longside Ventures | Managing Director
Angel investor. Entrepreneur working from South Florida for over 20 years. Prior to moving to South Florida, conducted various investment activities out of New York City. Previously, the owner in one of Miami’s iconic restaurant’s chains named Roasters & Toasters and continues to invest in many other food concepts. An investor in many other companies both public and private, with a focus on international growth and potential for global presence.
Business Activity: Angel Investments, Venture Capital
Gabriel Shapiro | Grayfox Partners | Managing Director
Investor & Entrepreneur. Founded and sold JPay. Spearheaded the money transfer and card divisional activities on P&L to drive program effectiveness and salvage fledgling business(s) to secure profitability. Company revenue spiked from $70M to over $125M.
Business Activity: Angel Investments, Venture Capital
Dean Heller | FundersClub | Investment Panel Member
Member helping the company evaluate potential platform investments. FundersClub is the world’s first online venture capital platform. It is built around a unique online marketplace that allows accredited investors to become equity holders in managed venture funds, which then fund pre-screened private companies. Each funded FundersClub startup benefits from the capital, the advice, and the professional networks of its associated venture fund, and are spared from the overhead of interfacing with a crowd of investors by receiving capital in a traditional venture capital fund format. Investors benefit from greater access to private investment opportunities, a more convenient investment process and the ability to diversify with relatively small amounts of capital.
Business Activity: Backed by Y Combinator, First Round Capital, Spark Capital, Intel Capital, Draper, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, and more.
Matt & Nicole Zito | Travel Startups Incubator® | Managing Partners
TSI (Travel Startups Incubator®) is a global travel technology company. TSI helps emerging travel tech companies pilot and license technology with larger travel companies (B2B) and helps startups connect with investors for investment capital. TSI Traction Program is a 9-week acceleration program. TSI Symposiums are 1-day events for 1:1 meetings, panels and presentations. TSI Fund 1 invested in 21 travel tech startups.
Business Activity: Angel Investments, B2B travel tech startups, APIs, Micro-Services
Website: https://www.travelstartups.co
Emerging Travel Tech Companies
Riccardo Vittoria | 30SecondsToFly | CEO
At 30SecondsToFly we are revolutionizing corporate travel through machine learning. Our technology “Claire” is a corporate travel agent powered by artificial intelligence. She chats with travelers on all channels to book flights and hotels, while she learns their preferences and applies their travel policies.
Business Activity: MicroService, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Business Travel Incentive Travel
Investment Raising:
Website: http://www.30secondstofly.com
Nate Marcus | OccasionGenius | CEO
OccasionGenius’ technology understands users, understands upcoming events, and matches users to events. We then provide this technology to our B2B enterprise partners including hotels, universities and real estate agencies. We keep missing out on what’s happening around us, whether we’re traveling or in our own town. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is real. This is because there has not been a resource to discover events that is both comprehensive and sufficiently personalized. We have to skim through all the events we don’t care about in hopes of finding one we do.
Business Activity: API, Advertising, Event Planning, Events, Marketing, Calendar, Personalization, and Quality Content
Investment Raising: $1.5M
Website: http://www.occasiongenius.com/
Andres Collart | Trip Ninja | CEO
Trip Ninja is the industry leader in multi-city flight technology. We work with our partner OTA’s to revolutionize their multi-city search and booking process using our technology to allow for lower flight prices. In an industry where metasearch is king, having lower flight prices allows our customers to be more competitive and make more money by increasing their markups. The key issue in multi-city booking is that there are simply too many combinations for the average consumer or travel agent to search efficiently. Trip Ninja was created as a way to quickly and easily find the cheapest combination of flights for multi-city travel.
Business Activity: API, Multi-Destination Travel, Search Algorithms, and Leisure Travel
Investment Raising: $1M
Website: https://www.tripninja.io
Brett Ziegler | Trip Ninja | COO
Trip Ninja is the industry leader in multi-city flight technology. We work with our partner OTA’s to revolutionize their multi-city search and booking process using our technology to allow for lower flight prices. In an industry where metasearch is king, having lower flight prices allows our customers to be more competitive and make more money by increasing their markups. The key issue in multi-city booking is that there are simply too many combinations for the average consumer or travel agent to search efficiently. Trip Ninja was created as a way to quickly and easily find the cheapest combination of flights for multi-city travel.
Business Activity: API, Multi-Destination Travel, Search Algorithms, and Leisure Travel
Investment Raising: $1M
Website: https://www.tripninja.io
Parminder Batra | TraknProtect | CEO
TraknProtect Safety Buttons Employee Safety at the touch of a button™. TraknProtect is the only safety button solution designed for hospitality.
TraknProtect‘s hotel employee safety button technology is designed to help hotels meet state and local legislation requirements. The TraknProtect award-winning employee safety button also seamlessly delivers on the AHLA’s 5-Star Promise, that the major hotel brands have committed to – including a commitment to provide safety buttons to all employees by December 31, 2020. The TraknProtect Safety Button was designed based on feedback from hoteliers and employees, to be an easy-to-use and install solution while also leveraging the TraknProtect IoT platform that includes inventory tracking, room tray tracking and vendor tracking for hotels.
Business Activity: Hospitality, Technology, Sensors, and Safety Buttons
Investment Raising: $2M
Website: http://www.traknprotect.com
Fares Khalidi | nXus Software | CEO
nXus provides a unique perspective on travel for small groups, where tracking expenses and calculating total costs is difficult. With 80% of small meetings and events unmanaged in the corporate world, visibility and ease of use are key in helping to find saving opportunities, without sacrificing any aspect of the event. We brings a greater level of transparency for corporations planning trips for small groups. We allow them to research real-time costs of air, hotel, and car rentals for multiple destinations using a single query. We provide origin-specific information, determining the lowest cost for preferred destinations. The platform generates a cost ranking to allow for optimum location choice and then allows for booking the selections.
Business Activity: MicroService, TMCs, Corporate Travel, Travel Agencies, Information Services
Investment Raising: $500K
Website: https://www.thenxus.com/
Marina Petrova | Places.Events | CEO
On a mission to simplify the search and booking of activities and events for travelers. places.events is a new things to do platform for travelers. We bring together the world of concerts, festivals, art exhibitions and other events, with the world of sightseeing tours and key attractions.
Business Activity: API, Tours and activities, Leisure Travel
Investment Raising: $1.5M
Website: https://places.events
Gary Marshall | Travel Daily | CEO
We are a fast-growing online community dedicated to informing, connecting, and developing the world’s travel industry professionals. Founded in 2006, we have active subscriber bases and contributors in Asia, Europe, the USA, Middle East, China and India. Our audience is made up of travel professionals from across the industry with a focus on agencies, hospitality, aviation, cruise, MICE, and technology. We are a global B2B engagement platform for the travel industry, with: – 200,000 global subscribers – 4,000,000 newsletters per month – 40,000 social media followers
Business Activity: Travel News, Travel Industry Events, Travel Industry Jobs, Travel Industry Media, Travel Industry Advertising, Travel industry Marketing, Travel Media, Travel Advertising, Travel Marketing, Travel Events, Travel Industry Analysis, Travel Industry News
Investment Raising:
Website: https://www.traveldailymedia.com
Jeff Berk | Tripkicks | CEO
Tripkicks is an enterprise technology company that rewards business travelers for making cost conscious and policy compliant travel decisions. When business travelers spend under their trip budget, they keep a portion of the savings. Companies can greatly reduce their travel and expenses budgets using a traveler-centric platform, where significant cost savings are fueled by employee flexibility and empowerment. Our proprietary algorithm produces an accurate, company-specific budget, calibrated to include policies, preferences, trends, and real-time data.
Business Activity: Reduce Travel Costs, Enhance Traveler Experience, Improve Policy Compliance, Reward Travelers, and SAP Concur Partner
Investment Raising: $1.3M
Website: http://www.tripkicks.com
David Kaufman | Tripkicks | Chairman
Tripkicks is an enterprise technology company that rewards business travelers for making cost conscious and policy compliant travel decisions. When business travelers spend under their trip budget, they keep a portion of the savings. Companies can greatly reduce their travel and expenses budgets using a traveler-centric platform, where significant cost savings are fueled by employee flexibility and empowerment. Our proprietary algorithm produces an accurate, company-specific budget, calibrated to include policies, preferences, trends, and real-time data.
Business Activity: Reduce Travel Costs, Enhance Traveler Experience, Improve Policy Compliance, Reward Travelers, and SAP Concur Partner
Investment Raising: $1.3M
Website: http://www.tripkicks.com
Jimmy Suh | One Night | President and Founder
One Night is a booking app that celebrates spontaneous living by providing same night stays for a curated group of hotels in major cities. Beginning at 12pm daily, users have instantaneous access to the most extraordinary hotels at the lowest rates. The app provides an hour by hour experiential timeline of tips that allows users to maximize their stay experience in each select hotel. One Night is based on the belief that no remarkable night should be spent in unremarkable settings. Spontaneous Nights at Our Favorite Hotels.
Business Activity: Hotel Booking, Technology Innovation, Travel, Hospitality, and Mobile Apps
Investment Raising: $2M
Website: http://www.onenight.com/
Andres Fabris | Traxo | CEO
Traxo is building the console for modern travel managers so they run their entire travel program strategically. Traxo eliminates blind spots and tracks multi-channel travel activity in real-time, in a single system of record. Without requiring travelers to change behavior, all agency and direct supplier bookings, including modifications, are automatically captured and combined into intelligent itineraries and actionable reporting. API-based integrations unlock and distribute the same travel data to the travel industry’s most popular services. With Traxo corporations enhance traveler safety, maximize savings, and deliver an experience employees love. Traxo is based in Dallas, Texas.
Business Activity: Corporate Travel Management, Email Parsing, Travel Aggregation, Business Travel, Itinerary Management, Expense Management, Itinerary Aggregation, Duty of Care.
Investment Raising: Final $500K of $12M Series B
Website: https://www.traxo.com/
Safir Monroe | UnDelay | CEO
We provide mobile and web applications that utilize AI and data aggregation to improve airline and airport operations. The features in our platform are also available in the form of APIs so customers can integrate our solutions within their own applications.
Business Activity: API, Airlines, Airports, Travel Companies
Investment Raising: $500K
Website: https://www.undelayapp.com/
Stefanie Nissen | Trvl Porter | CEO
Trvl Porter is your personal style concierge for travel. We lend a personalized wardrobe directly to your destination so that you can travel, baggage free. Experience travel and fashion in an exclusive new way! Trvl Porter lends you wardrobe options based on your style and trip details using locally sourced designers. You will have a unique opportunity to “try before you buy” or simply discover something new. Eliminate the time spent on outfit planning, packing and waiting in lines at baggage claim and experience the first ever luxury style concierge! After learning your style/fit preferences, budget, destination and itinerary, a professional stylist will curate the perfect travel wardrobe that you’ll sign off on before your trip.
Business Activity: Style, Travel, Concierge, Luxury, Experience, and Technology
Investment Raising: $500K
Website: https://trvlporter.com/
Johnny Thorsen | Trvl Porter | Investor/Advisor
Trvl Porter is your personal style concierge for travel. We lend a personalized wardrobe directly to your destination so that you can travel, baggage free. Experience travel and fashion in an exclusive new way! Trvl Porter lends you wardrobe options based on your style and trip details using locally sourced designers. You will have a unique opportunity to “try before you buy” or simply discover something new. Eliminate the time spent on outfit planning, packing and waiting in lines at baggage claim and experience the first ever luxury style concierge! After learning your style/fit preferences, budget, destination and itinerary, a professional stylist will curate the perfect travel wardrobe that you’ll sign off on before your trip.
Business Activity: Style, Travel, Concierge, Luxury, Experience, and Technology
Investment Raising: $500K
Website: https://trvlporter.com/
Inbal Tubi | WhosYourGuest | CEO
WhosYourGuest is a worldwide network where accommodation providers can rate their guests behavior. This allows the hotels to offer a better stay experience to their guests while at the same time helping them save billions of dollars in prevented damages to facilities and reputation. It’s like Tripadvisor but for the ho(s)tels.
Business Activity: Hotels, Hostels, Review Technology, Loyalty
Investment Raising: $1M
Website: http://www.whosyourguest.com
Adrian Dewey | FullSeats | CEO
Full Seats is a booking system that actively builds your business. More than just a booking solution for Tours and Activities, Full Seats leverages the power of peer to peer marketing to increase awareness and drive sales for your business. Further, it allows the distribution of activity providers to third parties.
Business Activity: Online Booking Engine, Tours and Activities
Investment Raising: $500,000
Website: http://www.fullseats.com
John Weimer | OnceThere | CEO
OnceThere makes it easy for lodging providers to deliver awesome vacation experiences. We provide turnkey activity solutions to vacation rental providers, hotels and resort companies. All 100,000+ vacation activities on OnceThere’s platform are instantly bookable from any device, and our customers earn more while delivering a better guest experience using tools OnceThere provides that make merchandising tours and activities easy throughout the guest journey.
Business Activity: Travel activities, global distribution platform, tourism, and online travel
Investment Raising:
Website: http://oncethere.com
Sachin Narode | Xeniapp | CEO
Xeniapp is an AI-based decentralized online travel portal (OTA) allowing users to build itineraries on single page with real time pricing and availability. You can add flights, hotels, car rentals, and experiences by simply dragging and dropping them into your itinerary. We use an advanced blockchain settlement engine to pay our vendors instantaneous based on smart contracts. The settlement process makes the cost of booking cheaper and it allows tracking of transactions for all of our suppliers.
Business Activity: Travel, Local Food & Drink, Adventure, Hospitality, Personalized Local Tours, blockchain, and fintech
Investment Raising: $2M
Website: https://xeniapp.com/
Asad Rahman | NeoJets | CEO
NEOJETS is the world’s first complete private jet booking platform that allows high net worth travelers to optimize the bespoke and exclusive private travel experience in ways the industry hasn’t seen before.
We have brought together the perks of holding a Jet Card and the seamless booking process of the innovative platforms. Best of all? You pay the same retail fees as if you go directly to the Jet Operator.
Business Activity: Business Travel, Luxury Travel, Travel Distribution, Revenue Management, Private Jet Booking Fulfillment, Private Jet Booking Technology, Private Jet Distribution Technology, and Private Jet Charter
Investment Raising: $5M
Website: http://neojets.com
Jeffrey Cohen | MyLifeID | CEO
MyLifeID provides a product which enables people to seek medical treatment where, when and from whom they want anywhere in the world. Whether for medical tourism, for travel company employees who are constantly traveling, for travelers who want the extra protection of having their entire medical record with them, for tour managers, corporate travel, students studying abroad or more. We are seeking $1 million to hire additional staff, purchase inventory and continue to integrate as well as to support our translation of medical records into over 100 languages which makes the MyLifeID Pocket Cloud the only global healthcare product usable for travel.
Business Activity: MicroService, leisure travel, business travel, medical tourism, college travel.
Investment Raising: $1M
Website: https://www.mylifeid.com
Nikolay Volper | Tamgy | CEO
Geo position app for travel industry. Tamgy is an online E-commerce business. We are currently developing a new mobile app and webpage as an extension of our current revenue generating business. The mobile app will have many features for our users, including the travel industry and being able to book travel directly from the app or web-page. There is no platform that exists in the market that allows users to shop online and book travel under the same umbrella.
Business Activity: MicroService, leisure travel, geolocation, e-commerce
Investment Raising: $750,000
Website: https://www.tamgy.com
Chris Moss | PSNGR1 | CEO
PSNGR1’s core competency is to provide integrated travel and expense management for a low cost. We provide a seamless solution to keep your employees in compliance and eliminate fraud. Our end to end platform can be set up in minutes with travelers organized into both departments and cost centers. No more lengthy corporate travel policies, simply select travel rules and allow the software to filter the content.
Business Activity: Business travel, corporate travel, customer service, and travel tech
Investment Raising:
Website: http://www.psngr1.com