Is traveltech taking off? 10 traveltech companies that should be on your radar

The global traveltech industry has seen incredible growth and is currently estimated at a whopping $8 trillion. The last few years have delivered quite a few challenges as Covid-19 had a tremendous impact following worldwide restrictions on travel. However, despite the pandemic, traveltech companies raised $363 million in 2020.

In Israel, there are over 300 companies taking part in the travel innovation space and the industry is booming. Below are 10 companies operating in traveltech, divided into relevant subcategories:

Alternative accommodation

Guesty

• Product: The Guesty platform provides end-to-end property management software for short-term rentals.
• Year Founded: 2013
• Funding: $114M (according to Crunchbase)
• Founders: Amiad Soto, Koby Soto

Since the pandemic began in 2020, the company has nearly doubled its size, scaling to over 500 employees across 13 global offices.

Guesty’s Open API technology allows third-party integrations with more than 130 partners on the Guesty Marketplace, covering everything from dynamic pricing tools, to payment processing, contactless check-in technology, digital concierge services and customer upsells.

Amiad Soto CEO of Guesty.

Business Travel

Fairfly

• Product: A flight reservations platform intended to manage corporate travel and air ticket booking. Through the platform companies can maximize airfare savings by receiving notifications on price drops post ticket sales.
• Year founded: 2013
• Funding: $2M
• Founders: Aviel Siman-Tov, Ami Goldenberg, Gili Lichtman, Uri Levine

Fairfly are assisting flight providers with the enormous task of unused ticket handling, which is still very much an issue in 2022. Last October, Fairfly also added a hotel solution product to its existing air re-shop platform. The company is backed by leading VCs and investors, including Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze.

TripActions

• Product: TripActions, which has already reached unicorn status, provides an end-to-end corporate card, expense management, and travel platform. TripActions leverage real-time data to help companies keep traveling employees safe, reduce spending and drive productivity.
• Year founded: 2015
• Funding: Over $1 billion.
• Founders: Ariel Cohen, Ilan Twig

Boasting over 8,800 corporate customers, TripActions raised $780 million during the pandemic, $250 million of which was used in May 2021 to acquire Reed & Mackay, a British travel agency that manages meetings, events, and VIP services. Notable corporate clients who have begun using the TripActions platform include Heineken, Crate & Barrel, and Snowflake.

Ground transport

BookAway

• Product: BookAway is an online platform offering ground travel booking services from local transportation suppliers worldwide. The company assists travelers in finding the best services available and trip planning. On the flip side they also help partners expand their customer reach.
• Year founded: 2017
• Funding: $81M
• Founders: David Yitzhaki, Jonathan Bensaid, Noam Toister, Omer Chehmer

BookAway is active in over 90 countries and 13,000 cities. It has made over 1.5 million products from over 7,000 operators available in more than 100 markets. The company has completed four acquisitions over the past year, with the group currently made up of Bookaway.com, 12Go, GetByBus, and Plataforma 10 - consumer-facing digital brands that allow travelers to book buses, private transfers, ferries, and trains in advance and online. The group has also invested in proprietary technology for bus and coach operators.

David Yitzhaki, Noam Toister, Omer Chehmer of Bookaway.

Metasearch

Pruvo

• Product: A hotel re-booking solution that can take an existing hotel reservation and find the exact room at a lower price, thus enabling users to get a better deal, even after their reservations have been closed.
• Year founded: 2016
• Funding: $1.7M
• Founders: Itai Marcipar, Regev Brody

Pruvo, a finalist of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) startup competition, boasts savings of an average of 12% per booking. The company closed its Seed round of $1.1M at the start of Covid-19 in March 2020.

Communication

Howazit

• Product: An end-to-end customer communication platform allowing businesses to communicate with customers in an effort to enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, engagement, and sales.
• Year founded: 2013
• Funding: NA
• Founders: Shimi Azaria, Gilad Cohen, Roy Fisher

Serving 2,000 organizations in 24 countries, including airlines such as Singapore Airlines and hotels the likes of the Intercontinental hotel chain; Howazit is an additional company that reached the semifinals of the UNWTO Startup Competition.

Meeba

• Product: A social app for travelers providing real-time travel info and advice by connecting nearby travelers. Meeba users can see those around them, find travel partners and get information from them.
• Year founded: 2016
• Funding: Bootstrapped with a $8.5K grant
• Founders: Hatzav Aviv, Cnaan Aviv

The user generated data platform was inspired and made by travelers, for travelers, says Meeba cofounder Hatzav Aviv. The app is free and delivers opportunities to explore local areas, meet with other travelers, ask questions and get tips, buy and sell travel equipment, and participate in local events.

Medical

Air Doctor

• Product: Air Doctor matches patients with specialized physicians during traveling. The company's platform helps ensure that international travelers have a plan for dealing with health emergencies in a foreign country.
• Year founded: 2016
• Funding: $31M
• Founders: Jenny Cohen Derfler, Efrat Sagi-Ofir, Yegor Kurbachev, Yam Derfler

Backed by Israeli insurance provider The Phoenix, Air Doctor and the Phoenix's joint service has helped it increase traveler's health insurance revenues by over 20% and reduce medical visit claim costs by 14% during the first half of 2019, according to The Phoenix.

Revenue

Roomer

• Product: Roomer connects travelers that need to cancel a non-refundable hotel room with people who are looking for last-minute discounted accommodations.
• Year founded: 2011
• Funding: $17M
• Founders: Adi Zellner, Ben Froumine, Gon Ben-David

Similar to StubHub.com for tickets, Roomer’s goal is to make travel exchangeable and tradable. Also, its automated validation system verifies the authenticity of every single reservation.

Roomer app for hotels

Tour and activities

WishTrip

• Product: WishTrip is a tourism experience management platform that includes a visitor mobile app and a suite of tools that help attract visitors and create new revenue opportunities.
• Year founded: 2013
• Funding: NA
• Founders: Yakov Slushtz, Bezalel Lenzizky

WishTrip has gamified attractions by providing site managers a template to quickly, and easily, build their own in-site interactive gaming experience based on the geography and attractions in their site. Also, during the height of Covid-19 the company understood the need for social distancing and created a safety solution that allows destinations to open without limiting their normal visitor capacity, while also strictly adhering to standard Covid-19 regulations.