Twenty travel tech startups plus five wildcard participants have been selected for the first round of the Global Startup Pitch. The competition, which is in its second year, is jointly produced by WiT and Phocuswright.
They were selected out of a crop of more than 120 entries received for the global competition to surface the best travel startups across five different regions of the world.
They are:
Asia Pacific
Middle East & Africa
Europe
Americas
A Wildcards category was created by Phocuswright and WiT to surface ideas that are particularly global, future-oriented, hard to solve and attack next-generation challenges. “We are always on the lookout for ideas that don’t quite fit into a box but are worth surfacing,” said Pete Comeau, managing director, Phocuswright.
They are:
Wildcards
- Asia Pacific: Kotozna
- Europe: Tryp.com, Wallid.co
- Americas: Avol Aerospace, Floqsta
Added Comeau, “We’re genuinely enthused by the exceptional quality and diversity represented in the submissions. We have seen a multitude of startups striving to address issues prevalent in the hospitality industry, a recurring trend over the years. Still, we’re also witnessing innovative strategies to age-old problems such as optimizing payments, utilizing AI to forecast travel demand, and improving travel discovery.
“We have some amazing female founders, startups from all corners of the world, including Japan, Mexico and New Zealand, and some travel adjacent companies pushing our industry to think bigger. We’ve brought together a distinguished group of judges who will assist in identifying the best startups poised to take on some of the most significant industry challenges.”
“We want to thank our panel of judges who did the hard work to get us to this first round, which will be aired live on May 24. Three per region/category will be picked to enter the second round on August 24, and the chosen finalists will pitch live for the grand prize at WiT Singapore, Oct 2-4,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WiT.
The criteria that judges apply to the startups throughout the competition include viability, customer appeal, technical innovation, sustainability, team and the X factor.
The Global Startup Pitch Competition is part of an ongoing commitment to cultivate innovation through activities including WiT Bootcamps, Phocuswright Startup Program, Hot25 Startups, Summit and an industry-driving global network of leaders on the edge of innovation.
To watch Round 1 of the Global Startup Pitch, sign up here
