NEW TECH


Start me up


With the market saturated with new products


and tech companies, BBT looks at the large corporates investing in the new breed of entrepreneur


By LINDA FOX Y


OU MIGHT NOT EXPECT the words start-ups and corporate travel to be mentioned in the same sentence. And yet in the past year, there have been many


new players looking to disrupt corporate travel, and established businesses are beginning to change how they think about these newbies. Take Travelport. A year ago it launched


its Travelport Labs accelerator programme – a scheme whereby a company provides mentorship and support to a start-up – and has just unveiled its third tranche of par- ticipants. Initiatives around accelerators are one way to help raise the profile of start-ups and encourage new entrants. B2B confer- ences which run start-up competitions are also helping. Business Travel Show event director David Chapple says innovation is the


90 BBT January/February 2017


“lifeblood” of any industry and without it “evolution is impossible”. “For a sector like business travel, which


has been – and continues to be – impacted so heavily by technology, innovation is particularly important and must be embraced by buyers,” he says. “Without innovation there would be no online booking, no apps, no sharing economy, no paperless check-in and no digital traveller tracking.” Last year the Business Travel Show unveiled its Launchpad initiative, which brings start-ups and buyers together at the two-day event. Chapple says that Launchpad provides the new entrants with exposure to the corporate buying community which, in turn, gets to discover new products and services. In addition, buyers can also help shape the direction of start-ups with valu- able feedback on how their concepts might have most impact.


More recently, British Airways-parent company IAG announced its start-up ac- celerator Hangar 51 while Marriott Hotels unveiled its own Testbed initiative. Easyjet, meanwhile, partnered with Founders Factory on a five-year deal to incubate and accelerate start-ups in the travel space.


DISRUPTIVE THINKING Carolyn McCall, chief executive of Easyjet, said the initiative was about “putting disruptive thinking at the centre of our digital experience”. Coupled with this desire to seemingly embrace disruption is the arrival on the scene of a number of start-ups – Trippeo, Flyr, Upside, Travo, Hyper, Conichi and Trav- elbank to name a few – all seeking to address different elements of corporate travel. Patrice Simon, who has responsibility


for new product development at Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), believes one reason


BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM


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