“Without innovation there would be no online booking, no apps, no sharing economy, no paperless check-in and no digital traveller tracking”
for all the start-up activity is some high valu- ations which makes investment attractive. “The time it takes to go from US$20
million to US$1 billion is a lot less. If you are an investor you might be thinking you could put US$100,000 into a company in January and get a return by June, so that triggers a lot more activity. It’s a money thing.” He adds that it’s no longer about investors seeking technology start-ups that might make mere ‘unicorn’ status (companies valued at US$1 billion), rather companies that may achieve ‘decacorn’ status (valued at US$10 billion). Dan Ruch, CEO and co-founder of Rock-
etrip, which helps businesses incentivise travellers that adhere to policy, agrees there is plenty of money being put into the space, as well as a lot of “inquisitive behaviour”. He points to deals such as Concur’s recent acquisition of Hipmunk as an example. Ruch adds that the size of the corporate travel space also makes it a target for start-
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ups and investment. “It’s crazy to look at the size of the business space and not get excited about disrupting it. It is by far the biggest, addressable market. There’s a massive oppor- tunity so it’s surprising there aren’t more.”
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL Click Travel executive chairman Simon McLean says entrepreneurs will be looking at the travel space in general and see corpo- rate travel as relatively untapped. There is an appetite to see innovation and change in this area, and travel management companies (TMCs) and buyers recognise the benefits of working with start-ups. CWT’s Simon says big companies have difficulty in bringing new products and services to market quickly and describes start-ups as another world in terms of agility and speed to market. But while there are benefits, there are also challenges and risks involved. Craig
Cherry, procurement director at media and digital marketing firm Dentsu Aegis, says companies don’t often have the time and resources required to nurture a start-up or integrate it within the business. “We live in an age of mitigation and
the whole concept of risk management has been lifted to a different level. Then, there’s issues around the use of data and personal data.” He adds, however, that if he can demonstrate a business-use case for a new product or service in terms of money savings and efficiency gains somewhere in the process, then his company will definitely look at it.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK Rocketrip’s Ruch says there’s a trade-off in working with new entrants when it comes to their ability to deliver what they say in terms of particular features, or more widely. “Does it really work the way it was pitched
BBT January/February 2017 91
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