Startups in the spotlight: Grit, growth, and a touch of magic
The Global Startup Pitch Showcase 2024, held at Phocuswright WiT Middle East, revealed not only cutting-edge ideas but the grit, grind, and gut instinct it takes to survive and scale in today’s turbulent funding climate.
If there was a common thread running through the Global Startup Pitch Show [...]
Meet the 19 finalists of the 2025 Global Startup Pitch
Nineteen travel tech startups have been selected for the Finals of the 2025 Global Startup Pitch. The competition, in its fourth year, is jointly produced by WiT and Phocuswright and seeks to unearth the brightest stars in early-stage travel tech.
The Global Startup Pitch Competition is support [...]
Legends: From Global Startup Pitch winner to industry trailblazer
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-tim [...]
From Startup winner to global success: Wheel the World’s accessible travel revolution continues
Revenue has tripled since winning Global Startup Pitch two years ago – improving access to travel for more than 20,000 people
Wheel the World, the award-winning online travel marketplace making the world accessible to people with disabilities, is empowering tourism offices, destination marketing [...]
From surfing to startups: Ross Veitch on founding Wego, cracking the Middle East, and the AI-driven future of travel
Ross Veitch never set out to be a tech founder. In fact, he was closer to becoming a full-time surfer than a CEO. Yet today, as co-founder and CEO of Wego, one of the leading travel metasearch and marketplace platforms serving the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Veitch is proof that unconventional beg [...]
Catch-up Podcast: True power of AI. Alipay’s success in Malaysia. OTAs in UAE. Africa’s unique path.
We're trying something new with our weekly-ish podcast - we're outsourcing it to Artificial Intelligence. This is both an experiment and, if we're being honest, a convenient way to digest the top articles of the week from the WiT website into a nugget-of-a-podcast. We'll release a new episode every [...]
Fritz Demopoulos on self-awareness, fishing and outsiders | Conversations On Turning 20
When you get to the ripe young age of 20, you’re bound to collect lots of stories – not only about the past but lessons for the future.
As WiT marks its 20th year in 2025, we turn the spotlight on our community, our tribe pioneers and leaders, to tell their stories and share their views on th [...]
From redundancy to HeyMax: Plugging into the traveller’s economy to help people travel more, spend less
A fintech-loyalty play where it’s about the traveller, says Joe Lu
Joe Lu was on a swing with his newborn daughter in Kobe, Japan during a month-long sabbatical, when he got the news that the Facebook engineering office he had started in Singapore and headed since 2019 would be closed down and j [...]
Calling travel startups of the world: Global Startup Pitch returns in 2025
Grand Finals to be held at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona
Travel startups from across the world will have the opportunity to expose themselves to the global market once again when the Global Startup Pitch, by WiT and Phocuswright, returns for its 2025 edition.
Now in its fourth year, the globa [...]
Klook secures $100m from Vitruvian Partners
Ethan Lin: “This raise isn't just about capital, it's about confidence”
Barely more than a year since it raised $210m in December 2023, Klook, the leading platform for experiences and travel services in Asia, has announced US$100 million in funding led by the global growth investment firm Vitru [...]
