Travel Startups Incubator (TSI) is pleased to announce Yappes as its newest portfolio company. Yappes is an online marketplace for companies to discover, compare and license travel technology APIs. Yappes provides an open platform where travel API’s can be published, sand boxed, and tested.
Yappes aims to be a highly transparent and efficient API delivery & governance platform for both API providers and API consumers. Policies can be applied to streamline deal negotiations and licensing. Yappes is specifically designed for the travel domain in order to help users fulfill their needs in a familiar, innovative and efficient way.
Yappes as an API Marketplace offers several benefits and value to both API providers and API consumers.
- Increased exposure to markets resulting in increased visibility, transactions and revenues.
- LDN (Licensing, Deal and Negotiation) policies attached with each API provides streamlined and efficient deal negotiation process.
- Orchestrating the API’s access centrally to offer high transparency and governance.
- Enhanced API discovery using domain based Micro Classification and Contextual recommendations.
- Enabling better business decisions by providing insights on usage, geographical trends, API progression and several other parameters which are derived through Travel trends and API analytics.
According to Yappes Co-founder and CEO Bhanu Kumar Jain (BK), there is currently a huge gap in the travel industry that makes it very difficult to discover all available travel-related platforms. “When it comes to API licensing and deal negotiations,” BK says, “alot of innovations and improvements are needed in terms of policies and processes. Yappes is designed to bridge this gap by providing an efficient method for distributing travel APIs and managing their policies.”
As BK puts it, Yappes’s flexible distribution channel allows users to publish or consume APIs and easily engage in licensing and deal negotiations through a customized yet automated process. Other features include API collection management services and the micro classification of on-boarded APIs. (more…)
Beyond Pricing the most popular revenue management and dynamic pricing software for the $100B vacation rental and home sharing market wins the 2016 Start-up & Innovation in Travel award at Eye For Travel TDS America.
Tim Hentschel CEO of HotelPlanner.com with Ian McHenry Founder & CEO Beyond Pricing
Matt Zito and Nicole Zito with the Winner, Ian McHenry Beyond Pricing.
Runner-up – Trusted Housesitters
Trusted Housesitters helps pet owners find someone to care for their home and pets for free, in exchange for a place to stay. Andy Peck the founder has built one the fastest growing B2C businesses in travel with over 300,000 members. We interviewed Andy back in 2014 as part of the Travel Startup Founders Series, you can listen in to this wonderful interview here.
Andy Peck, founder Trusted Housesitters presenting on the main stage.
Matt & Nicole Zito with Andy Peck, founder Trusted Housesitters.
Yana Trip is a Korean global tours and activity platform that offers various adventures, activities and local tours for Korean’s traveling outbound to see the world. A TSI startup portfolio company, the founders of Yana Trip came all the way from Korea to participate in the startup competition. The founding team of Yana Trip are some of the most dedicated and hardest working founders we have met.
Yeun-ah, Matt, Sunny and Nicole.
Travel Startups Incubator (TSI) recently launched an Advisory Program for seed-funded and later-stage travel startups. In this program TSI does not make a cash investment but provides paid advisory and professional services to travel startups, leveraging the full resources and network of the incubator to help their businesses break through to the next level of growth. We wanted to take a moment to highlight a couple of these promising companies and how we’re helping them. Please connect with us if you see a business development and or investment opportunity with either company.
Advisory Program client: LastSeat
LastSeat, currently in development, is a mobile-only booking app enabling bidding on airline seats for leisure and business air traveler. The company is lead by Nadeem Ladki (founder and CEO), co-founder Oscar Asly (Business Development) and co-founder Andrew Daniel, (Director of User Acquistion). LastSeat seeks to be the leading airline ticket auction platform for value-conscious travelers around the world, helping airlines effectively sell distressed inventory direct to consumers.
LastSeat value propositions:
- Fill empty seats and capture additional revenue for partner airlines.
- Enable consumers to bid on airline tickets with transparency.
The ASK:
LastSeat is currently looking for airlines to provide initial feedback on the product and the opportunity to pilot the new technology.
Benefits to the airline include:
- Additional sales with reduction in OTA fees.
- Increased load factors.
- No initial fees for user traffic directed to airline.
- Airlines are in control of visibility of user bids. Airlines can increase load factors by accepting bids which meet minimum KPIs.
- LastSeat’s airline dashboard generates high level reports for the C-suite, providing in-depth reviews on bottom line and load factor impact.
- Links users to airline booking platform, leveraging existing infrastructure to minimize resource and IT requirement for airline.
How TSI is helping:
- Connected LastSeat with Amadeus for Startups, a TSI Innovation Partner, for access to the Amadeus API.
- Connected LastSeat with a TSI Business Development Partner for access to airfare ticketing, fulfillment, and customer support.
- Actively making introductions to airlines in our Business Development partner network.
- Providing understanding of the distribution technology necessary to make this model work.
Nadeem Ladki says: ”Industries are changing rapidly with the introduction of new mobile technology, notably on-demand services and better connectivity to users. LastSeat helps bridge the gap for airlines, enabling them to better hear what their travellers want and capture revenue which wouldn’t have been possible before in a dynamic communication environment that does not relinquish pricing control. We are excited to bring this to market, and with the depth of knowledge amongst the team, TSI is a great partner in helping us do that.”
Matt Zito, Manager Partner at Travel Startups Incubator, says: “LastSeat is attempting to penetrate a very mature market within an industry that doesn’t like to alter their business models or provide transparency in discounted pricing. If true disruption is needed in the travel industry, the airlines are the ones that need it the most. As airlines move towards selling direct to travelers, LastSeat’s model supports this initiative.”
Advisory Program client: Together Travel
Together Travel is a youth travel tour operator serving international millennial travelers who come together throughout Europe for 5 Night / 6 Day events in the summertime in Ibiza, Mallorca and other hot spots around Europe. The company is lead by Aaron Evans-Aghoghogbe (Co-Founder & Director) and Christopher Moon (Co-Founder). Together Travel seeks to be the go-to brand creating exclusive experiences for the next generation of travelers.
Together Travel value propositions:
- Access to an exclusive travel club with closed network deals.
- Unmatched financial value for customers in each resort.
- Ease of fully integrated experience.
- Proprietary distribution & technology.
- Proven to reach and convert internationally.
The ASK:
Together Travel is looking to expand operations by chartering their own flights and building a mobile app for their customers. They are looking for a $500K investment from either an angel, VC or larger travel company to help them fund the development of their OTA platform.
Highlights:
How TSI is helping:
- Reviewing hotel contracts with the aim to increase margins by implementing an owned inventory merchant model.
- Connected Together Travel with Amadeus for Startups, a TSI Innovation Partner, providing access to global flight inventory through the Amadeus API.
- Making introductions to flight charter options.
- Introducing hotels, resorts and hotel wholesalers in the TSI Business Development network to acquire new hotel inventory and to strengthen relationships.
Matt Zito, manager partner at Travel Startups Incubator, says: “Together Travel is working on building an OTA targeting Millennial travelers, 18-34 years old. In the last five years Chris and Aaron have been very successful in building a tour operator business, moving thousands of young travelers into Ibiza during the summer months on 5 night and 6 day vacation packages. The next step in the evolution of their business is to implement new technologies that enable them the ability to sell year-round travel products to their loyal customer base, and to distribute out their proprietary inventory to larger third party travel companies. We look forward in helping them build out their company into a global OTA.”
Travel Startups Incubator (TSI) is pleased to announce Yana Trip as its newest portfolio company. The innovative adventure travel startup Yana Trip offers personalized online tour and activities scheduling to the growing number of fully independent Korean travelers eager to pursue adventures around the world.
Yeun-ah, Sunny and Matt going over the financials in Orlando, Florida.
Founded in April 2015 and based in Seoul, South Korea, Yana Trip is led by CEO Yeun-ah Cho. Cho, who named her company after the English pronunciation of her name, states that the acronym YANA also stands for “You Are Not Alone.” A former backpacker, Cho recalls how lonely it felt to prepare to go on a backpacking trip all on her own.
“With Yana Trip, I wanted to show people that they are not alone when they are traveling,” she says.
Cho’s startup will cater initially to Koreans who travel throughout the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia and want to supplement their trips with bookable outdoor activities. Featured global tour providers on Yana Trip offer everything from paragliding and skydiving, to scuba diving, surfing, biking, and even bungee jumping. Other options include sightseeing tours, snorkeling, cruising, fishing and snow tours.
Travelers can schedule tours and other activities in the cities they plan to visit through the mobile-friendly Yana Trip online portal.
Yana Trip has contracted directly with more than 1,500 activity tour providers around the world including such brands as Grayline, Big Bus Tour, Cirque du Soleil, and London Helicopter. Earlier this year, Yana Trip was certified, as a creative tourism venture company by the Korea Tourism Organization a highly sought designation within Korea. (more…)
We are pleased to announce that Travel Startups Incubator (TSI) will be running a travel technology demo day on November 30th as part of VISIT FLORIDA’s 2-day Digital Innovation Forum. VISIT FLORIDA, the state of Florida’s official marketing corporation, serves 11,000+ travel and tourism industry businesses. 12 startups will present new technologies and innovations that can help grow VISIT FLORIDA’s business and improve travelers’ experiences while visiting Florida.
Calling all travel, tourism and hospitality technology startups.
Do you have breakthrough new technology that will impact the travel and tourism industry?
If yes, please submit the simple form at the bottom of this page to be considered to present at this demo day.
VISIT FLORIDA Digital Innovation Forum, November 30th – Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate in Orlando, Florida.
- 12 startups will have an opportunity to pitch their technology and solution to 150 travel executives from hotels, DMOs/CVBs, theme parks, activity providers, restaurants and more. Attendees are heads of marketing, GM’s, and industry tourism leaders. Get in front of buyers and industry insiders.
- 5 minute pitch + 3 minute Q&A
- Evening reception with the travel executives following the demo’s/presentations
Timeline/Due Dates:
Fri, Sept 30th: Presenter agreements and payments due.
Fri, Oct 14th: TSI to announce 12 companies selected to pitch.
Fri, Oct 28th: Pitch deck due along with high-res logo, company summary, detailed bio and contact info.
Nov 2-15: Video presentation and/or live presentation due.
Wed, Nov 30th: Presentation/demo day.
11am: Setup, dry run
2pm: Pitches and presentations
6pm: VisitFlorida Reception
Cost:
– Free to submit to pitch.
– If your startup is selected to present a $500 fee will be charged by TSI.
At TSI, we are excited to be partnering with VISIT FLORIDA for this event as Florida is the #1 travel destination in the world and TSI’s home base is here in Central Florida. This is an opportunity for travel tech startups to get their technology in front of buyers and leaders within the travel industry. As the Sunshine State’s No. 1 industry, tourism was responsible for welcoming 106.6 million visitors in 2015 who spent $89.1 billion, employing 1.2 million Floridians.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- This is a business development opportunity for Presenter to promote and pitch a new technology or product to the attendees of the conference, NOT an investor presentation.
- 1 Presenter to attend per company.
- Presentations should be a combination of:
- Professional education on your new technology entering the travel industry
- The benefits of your product for attendees
- Why they should consider partnering with you to test/pilot the technology and or license/buy your product/technology
- Each attendee will receive a program at the event that includes your company bio, summary of your technology, logo and contact details so they can follow up with you after the conference.
- There will not be an area set up to “exhibit”, but there will be a 1.5 hour reception following the presentations whereas you can network and build prospective business development relationships with the attendees.
Presentation Guidelines
- 5 minute presentation on stage followed by a maximum of 2 questions from the audience.
- Presentation Format TBD
- Presentation must be kept relevant to attendees who are managers and heads of Florida DMO’s/Visitor
Bureaus, Hotels, Attractions, Theme Parks, Activity Providers.
- ALL pitches must include:
- Benefits of the technology or product for the targeted attendee.
- How the technology or product will impact the attendees business now or in the near future.
