The startups include, Simard, Table4One, AriseTravel, Jyrney, TripStax and TripShift and we spoke to each ahead of the event to find out what makes their tech so special.

You can read about Arise Travel and Jyrney's stories here.

But for now, let me introduce our next two startups:

SIMARD

Pedro Anderson, COO of Simard, which was founded back in September 2020, explained that the business gives corporate managers genuine choice using its commercial solutions.

What problem does your innovation solve?  

Because of the many layers of travel distribution, travel managers are not confident they are getting the best deals or sufficient transparency. They are also worried about duty of care.

What are the benefits to travellers and organisations with travellers?  

Direct supplier to buyer connections ensure that products can be tailored to each traveller context instead of generic offerings.

What are your plans for future growth?  

Once we have successfully launched our MVP pilots, we will use that learning to accelerate the network effect made possible by Winding Tree's open-source travel marketplace.

What will it mean to you to win the Innovation Faceoff?  

Recognition is key. We want the phone to ring off the hook!

TABLE4ONE

CEO and Co-founder of Table4One, Ciaran Haughey, founded the business back in 2019. 

What do you do?

Travelling on business? No need to eat alone. Table4One engineers life changing chance encounters. Table4One is the innovative platform that connects business travellers all around the world, in the REAL WORLD.

What problem does your innovation solve? 

Business travel is a lot of waiting on delayed flights, taxis from airports to hotels to offices, eating a burger and chips alone in your room. It is isolation, missing your family, friends and special occasions, but most of all it is missing opportunities to network, do business development or simply have some fun and relax after a stressful day.

We travel on business to be successful, but it is hard to feel empowered when you’re having a drink on your own in your hotel room. We know from experience that there is a better way.

For the traveller, eating alone makes them feel unfulfilled and bored. Business and career opportunities are lost, and fruitful relationships are not built. Business travellers are too valuable to be wasting their time eating room service alone.

What are the benefits to travellers and organisations with travellers? 

What if there was a way for solo business travellers to research and connect with other like-minded people to share food or experiences, to build new relationships, to find that new business opportunity, or simply just to enjoy the company of others whilst breaking bread?

Table4One connects like-minded business travellers to meet up, generate more leads and networking opportunities, whilst enhancing traveller wellbeing. We geo-locate solo business travellers and intelligently match them based on their profile and preferences and connect them in the real world. We then steer them towards curated experiences with our industry partners for which we earn commission.

For corporates, Table4One presents business development opportunities and enhances wellbeing. Using Table4One, hotels can entice business guests away from room service and into their restaurants to meet like-minded, interesting people. Hospitality partners can increase revenues and utilization while improving their guest’s experience at the same time.

What are your plans for future growth?

We plan to grow by partnering with travel and hospitality brands. We have developed value propositions for hotels, restaurants, hospitality technology partners, online travel agencies and travel management companies.

By partnering with these companies, we can offer them increased revenue opportunities as well as offering a unique service to their customers. Importantly, by partnering with these companies we can offer Table4One to their customers and guests.

For example, a hotel chain with 100 hotels and 12,000 rooms has 1,200,000 solo guest nights per year. Using Table4One, such a hotel chain can generate £2.5 Million of additional revenue annually. Partnering with such a chain will allow over a million customers each year to access Table4One.

What will it mean to you to win the Innovation Faceoff?

Winning Innovation Faceoff would be transformational for Table4One. It would showcase our solution to the business travel Industry and help significantly to attract partners and investors. It would provide an incredible launchpad in our goal to be the go-to solution for solo business travel; for the travellers, for hospitality, for corporates, for TMC’s and for the industry