A global line-up of travel start-ups, from Asia, the US and the UK, will be making their pitches to a panel of investors and mentors at the WIT Bootcamp, taking place on October 15 in Singapore. 

Held at ArtSpace@Helutrans, the Bootcamp, now in its third year, is aimed at sparking innovation and entrepreneurship in the online travel space in Asia. Held as part of the WIT Conference which has opened ITB Asia the last five years, it is the meet-and-match place for travel tech professionals, entrepreneurs, innovators and investors.

This year, in the most international line-up of start-ups, eight companies from India, Japan, China, Indonesia, UK, the US and Singapore have been selected to present their business models and ideas to an international panel of investors and mentors during the Bootcamp.

They are BeMyGuest (Singapore); Bistip (Indonesia); Bynd (US); Golibre (UK/Romania/Germany); Mygola (India); Roam7(Singapore); Trippiece (Japan); and TripShow (China).

Finalists will go on to pitch live at the Grand Finals on October 17 during the WIT Conference.

“There are many young and brilliant minds that are interested in our industry. But many need the guidance to get the break they need and to succeed. Since we gather many stalwarts and professionals who have been-there-done-that at the WIT conference, we figured it would be a waste if these young entrepreneurial types do not get the opportunity to connect with them,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, creator and owner of Web in Travel conference.

Selected travel start-ups will pitch their business in five minutes each to a panel of mentors and investors.

Finalists will go on to pitch live at the Grand Finals on Oct 17 at the WIT Conference, and a winner will walk away with a US$1,000 prize, sponsored by VaultPad, as well as mentoring and networking opportunities with investors and travel leaders.

This year’s panel of judges is also the most diverse, bringing together tried and tested entrepreneurs, investors such as the international Priceline Group, JFDI.asia, the ACTE Angel Investors Lounge (representing corporate travel), and Vaultpad, a European-based accelerator fund, and leaders in innovation.

It is chaired by Fritz Demopoulos (left), CEO, Queen’s Road Capital, Hong Kong and Kei Shibata, CEO, Venture Republic, Japan

Other judges include: Adrian Currie, Board Management Member, Priceline Group
; Brett Henry, Vice President, Marketing, Abacus International; 
Hugh Mason, CEO, JFDI.asia; 
Kurt Knackstedt, ACTE Angel Investors Lounge
Martin Symes, Chairman, Wego; 
Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart
; Timothy O’Neil Dunne, CEO, Vaultpad
; Valyn Perini, CEO, OpenTravel Alliance; 
Prof Adrian David Cheok, Professor, Keio University Graduate School of Media Design, Tokyo, Japan

Last year’s finalists will also be talking about their progress over the last 12 months in the session, “What A Difference A Year Makes”.