Legends, a pioneering travel technology company, has emerged as a significant success story since winning the Web in Travel (WiT) and Phocuswright Global Startup Pitch award. Legends is helping to transform the travel industry by leveraging AI and data to turn consented consumer data into real-time predictive insights – powering hyper personalization for greater engagement, conversion, revenue and loyalty.
Since winning the award two years ago, Legends has been able to launch LegendsDNATM, a proprietary behavioural intelligence and matching engine that helps brands to connect with their consumers.
Legends transforms travelers’ digital footprints into actionable insights, enabling brands to personalize experiences while managing privacy. Their technology leverages AI and data to provide a “whole human” view of traveler preferences, driving engagement, conversion, revenue, and loyalty.
The AI-powered technology transforms travellers’ digital footprints into dynamic preference profiles and actionable insights. By optimizing first-party data and capturing zero-party data from multimodal sources like photos, calendars, and social media, Legends can create a “whole human” view of traveller preferences. This enables brands to personalize experiences across every touchpoint, both digitally and in real life.
Stephanie Daniel, CEO and co-founder of Legends, shared insights into the company’s evolution and the impact of the WiT award. “Winning the award was significant for us; it was conceptual validation from the industry, and it created amazing connections. It allowed us to discuss fundamental insights with thought leaders early in our journey and helped us build key relationships which have been invaluable as we have continued to evolve – from advisors and investors to customers and strategic partners.”
Stephanie Daniel, CEO and co-founder of Legends, pitching at the Global Startup Pitch, at WiT Singapore 2023: The Human Revolution
Since winning the award, Legends has evolved its business model from B2C to B2B, focusing on addressing the deep pain points of brands seeking to understand their customers. The company has expanded its offerings to include data enrichment, matching of supply, and activation such as predictive audiences; and has adopted a phased segment approach, starting with travel advisors and expanding to hotels, loyalty programs, OTAs, e-commerce and beyond.
“The world is on an AI accelerated journey from traditional search to data driven personalized discovery, but privacy regulations and siloed data make it increasingly hard to deliver this. Our approach helps future proof brands’ strategy to ensure they win – with greater engagement, conversion, revenue, loyalty and experience,” Daniel explained. “We have increased focus on making it actionable such as through micro-segmentation and audiences, and even matching supply content to be prescriptive, delivering specific recommendations of what content/offer should be shown to whom, when, and on what channel.”
Legends’ growth and impact are evident in its numerous accolades since winning WiT’s prestigious award, including completing Techstars, being a finalist in the Skift IDEAS 2023 and 2024, being named a PW Hot25 for 2024, becoming an Amadeus StartUp to Watch 2024 and receiving an NYC Tech Award 2025.
“Legends’ journey from our startup pitch winner to industry leader exemplifies the transformative power of innovation in travel tech,” said Siew Hoon Yeoh, co-founder and editor of WiT. “WiT is committed to identifying and supporting startups with high growth potential, and Legends’ success is a testament to our mission.”
Looking ahead, Legends will focus on strategic B2B customers across key sectors, including large enterprises. The company will continue to evolve its product to deliver optimal impact and experience for both brands and travellers, and selectively expand its team and partnerships.
From left: Stephanie Daniel, CEO and co-founder of Legends, Stephen Snyder, Managing Director of Operations & Partnerships, JetBlue Ventures, Pete Comeau, Managing Director, Phocuswright, and Yeoh Siew Hoon, Founder of WiT
“It is so important to support and recognize the value of innovation,” Daniel concluded. “Partnerships between startups and the largest brands have the biggest impact potential. The validation of ideas acts as a node of credibility to then expand through connections made.”
The Phocuswright and WebInTravel Global Startup Pitch is an annual competition that identifies and showcases promising early-stage travel startups from around the world. The competition is a joint initiative of Phocuswright, a leading travel research and events company, and WebInTravel, a leading online travel publication in the Asia Pacific region.
