Housed next to city hall and the Mayor of London’s offices, overlooking Tower Bridge, new creative technology co-working space Traveltech Lab has just ushered in its first wave of start-ups.
London and Partners, alongside social enterprise The Trampery, launched the scheme in March. Corporate partners include Gatwick airport and Tui’s Hotelbeds Group.
“I’m not in it for a quick buck,” says Chetan Shah, founder of MICEbook. His company is one of just 13 that made it through to the Traveltech Lab – out of more than 100 applicants. So what, exactly, is he in it for?
Of those 13 start-ups (see box, right), MICEbook is, at first glance, the most business travel-orientated. Launched in July last year, it is an online directory where meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE) buyers from agencies, corporates and associations can connect with suppliers. Shah claims it is “a hub of valuable information, making it easy for buyers to find exactly the right supplier or information, in an instant”.
So what makes the Traveltech Lab attractive? “It’s about getting good people around you,” he says. “You need to have people taking you out of your comfort zone. Be challenged, and learn to see things before they hit you.”
The scheme is also attractive from a due-diligence point of view. Martin Hudson, founder of location-beacon technology start-up Beaconia, says: “It’s given us a certain credibility. It implies to a potential client that there’s already been due-diligence done. And it’s an affirmation of our own business idea.”
Beaconia is working with the Hackney Museum, and an upcoming sci-fi event, to provide beacons and an online content management system to help exhibitors capitalise on this emerging technology.
Hudson predicts success in the events sector. “Exhibitor stands, if quiet, might send out a message to delegates’ phones saying: ‘Pop round for a free drink,’ with attendant directions. Or delegates would be able to tap the beacon on a stand, in the same way you tap with an Oyster card, and download a business card and brochure.” It’s also a return to travel for Hudson, having previously built white-label websites to allow regional airports to sell flights and hotels. His technology was sold to Airport Direct Travel 15 years ago.
Another advantage, according to Andy Owen-Jones, founder of big data specialist BD4Travel, is the travel focus: “We are just opening up our presence in the UK and so the lab is ideal. The location and the ‘can-do’ atmosphere are perfect. Having an atmosphere totally focused on travel is great.”
Then there’s the media interest – at the official opening in March, HRH the Duke of York welcomed in the start-ups. As a result, there is a greater exposure to senior industry executives, partners, investors and mentors, “to help accelerate the growth and development of their businesses”, according to London and Partners. Its chief operating officer Andrew Cooke adds that the ideas and products developed at Traveltech Lab “could prove to be game-changers for the industry – whether for leisure or business travel”.
Business versus leisure
However, currently, business travel appears somewhat under-represented among the finalists. One might argue the leisure dominance is because the lab is more about promoting tourism to London. London and Partners’ mission statement includes its aim to build the capital’s international reputation and to attract investment and visitor-spend (think beacons around London museums, or augmented reality – courtesy of Timelooper, another Traveltech Lab start-up – around the city’s iconic sites).
Scalability is one hurdle. Owen-Jones says: “Large businesses are less likely to take a risk than a consumer, and when you are selling to a major travel brand, they need to see that you will still be around in a few years. In future rounds, as the ecosystem gets more established, you will see more B2B players. But all the start-ups cite funding as one of their largest challenges, and that means you will have more B2C rather than B2B players in the first wave.”
Corporate partners so far include Gatwick Airport and – just announced as lead partner – Hotelbeds. Gatwick’s initial involvement will be to provide the businesses with a high-spec workspace, as well as helping them to accelerate their growth.
A Gatwick spokesperson adds: “Any new technology that streamlines travel flows and processes is good for all passengers, whether they are travelling on business or leisure.”
The complete picture
In the business travel sector, BD4Travel says it eventually aims to give travel sellers or travel managers a complete picture on which customers are looking for what, and how their supply chain is reacting, but adds the “complicating factor” for travel management companies is that they need to add in a layer of policy and rules. “However, we see some great areas to work on,” says Owen-Jones. “For example, can we spot people before they go off policy and offer them something that really meets their needs? Part of our approach is to train our algorithms to spot patterns that are significant but may not be obvious to a human operator.”
Meanwhile, real-time add-ons specialist start-up Epteca imagines a corporate path. Head of sales Carl Denton says: “We are finding an increasing number of business travellers are looking to find some downtime to explore the destinations they visit. We are keen to capitalise on this market based on our leisure skills to profile the specific needs of the traveller based around their time constraints.”
Whatever final direction the 13 start-ups take, it is still early days for the UK’s first travel industry incubator. MICEbook’s Shah says: “I don’t have an exit strategy in mind – I’m passionate about what I do”.
And passion, perhaps more than any other strategy, might just be the key ingredient to long-term success.
Lucky 13 The Traveltech Lab finalists...
01. Photospotland
02. Lulu Trip
03. Epteca
04. MICEbook
05. Timelooper
06. Great Little Place
07. Feedbackfor.com
08. Touriocity
09. Beaconia
10. Localoids
11. BD4Travel
12. Great Dest
13. Much Better Adventures
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