The annual LeWeb conference has quickly become THE fixture on the European calendar in recent years for startups, industry folk and digital celebrities (not least its founder Loic Le Meur).
In previous years there have been dozens of travel-related businesses kicking about the halls at the venue in Paris, France, eager to spread the word about their idea or project - but this appears to have changed in 2012.
There are still more than a fair share, of course, but it feels like travel is just not sexy any more. The genuine buzz, incidentally, is all around mobile payments.
Nevertheless, I still managed to catch up with a few travel newbies on the first day of the event...
1. TagTagCity (from Brussels)
What does it do?
- Aggregate local point of interest information from a variety of local sites and directories, all under license, and display a consolidated view on web and mobile. The cleaned up data is then used to create free microsites for local businesses. Each microsite receives a 2D tag so the local business can display a link on each By paying a one time fee, local businesses can get additional premium features to manage their local microsite. The company is privately funded and employs seven people under CEO and co-founder Geoffroy Simon.
Business model?
- Euro 60 one time fee for local businesses who want to optimize their own listing and microsite. 7,000 sold so far.
What is it looking for?
- Smart investors or enterprise partners with ties into local business or local media to accelerate international rollout.
2. Viajillo (from Paris)What does it do?
- Started as traditional travel agent focusing on Spain a la carte itineraries, and now claims to have found a scalable model for dynamic package customization. Instead of traditional dynamic packaging where the user has to search for and add every service on the trip (flight, hotel, activities, other hotel, etc) just to see the total price at the end, Viajillo offers coherent and fully priced itinerary "templates" based on years of experience on the destination. Users are then free to make changes, and immediately see the effect on total price. The agency is fully owned by founder David Rodriguez.
Business model?
- Margins on package sales.
What is it looking for?
- Expanding their dynamic packaging engine to other destinations, by licensing the technology to traditional tour operators who can apply destination expertise, customer service and marketing channels.
3. Recommend (from Aix-en-Provence)What does it do?
- Personal recommendations mobile app, closely linked to social networks. Users can write recommendations for hotels, restaurants, places to see and other non-travel categories and share them with their close friends (1st and 2nd level friends only). Very nice design. The English version is already in beta on the iOS appstore, with a French version and public launch expected in January. The startup is seeded by founder and online travel veteran Nicolas Mendiharat.
Business model?
- Referral or PPC fees when users link out to merchants (similar to Pinterest).
What is it looking for?
- First round of Euro 500,000 to close by January.
4. KelBillet (from Rennes)What does it do?
- Started as an exchange platform for unused train tickets, then created a multimodal itinerary engine to compare travel options across air, car, train, shared car rides, buses and second hand tickets. The founder Yann Raoul has raised a small angel round. The company is now tracking at 1M UU/month, employs 6 people and is profitable.
Business model?
- Pay-per-click to merchants or supplier web sites.
What is it looking for?
- Strategic partners for joint ventures or international distribution.
5. Be-bound (from Versailles)What does it do?
- A low-cost solution to keep a mobile data connection when travelling abroad, thanks to compressed data transmission over SMS. The connection is made over a dedicated app which offers email, twitter, weather and news, live currency conversion and translation services everywhere. The app uses SMS over standard cellular networks so it works everywhere - even where there is no 3G (only covering 14% of the planet) or wifi. The cost is 5 to 10 times lower than normal roaming fees. The company has 12 people working on the project, self funding and public loans. The official global launch will be on December 18.
Business model?
- Users buy data units called Be-miles which are then consumed by using the network through the app. The app provides constant visibility on remaining Be-miles credits for full transparency.
What is it looking for?
- Investors to fuel global rollout and first mover advantage.
NB: I will be sharing details of a few more of those travel-related companies that caught my eye in the next few days.