Nineteen travel tech startups have been selected for the finals of the 2025 Global Startup Pitch. The competition, in its fourth year, is jointly produced by WiT and Phocuswright and seeks to unearth the brightest stars in early-stage travel tech.
The Global Startup Pitch Competition is supported by American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), a Phocuswright Strategic Partner of Innovation.
Previously held in a virtual format, this year, the finalists will compete in-person on the Startup Stage at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona on June 10, 2025.
A panel of external judges selected the startups from a crop of nearly 200 entries, which aims to surface the best travel startups across four different regions of the world.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
As with previous years, an additional Wildcards category
was created by Phocuswright and WiT to surface ideas that are particularly global, future-oriented, hard to solve and address next-generation challenges.
Companies will compete in two categories: seed stage and scaling startups. The definitions are as follows:
- Seedup: Under three years old and have raised no more than $5 million.
- Scaleup: Three to eight years old and have raised no more than $10 million.
Seedups will compete against Seedups, and Scaleups will compete against Scaleups for each region. Winners for each region will be chosen during Phocuswright Europe, June 10-12. Nine winners will be selected who will travel to Singapore for showcase presentations
at WiT Singapore, October 6-8.
The audience at WiT Singapore will then vote for their favorite Seedup and Scaleup, and the People’s Choice winners will be showcased at The Phocuswright Conference, November 18-20,
in San Diego CA.
The finalists are:
Asia Pacific (APAC)
Europe
North America
Emerging Markets
Wildcards
Winners from the APAC region will receive a complimentary ASEAN Explorer Pass sponsored by AirAsia MOVE, which covers nine countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar,
Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Additionally, one winner will be chosen at random for a complimentary consulting strategy session with Travel Again Advisory.
The Global Startup Pitch competition is part of an ongoing commitment by Phocuswright and WiT to cultivate innovation through a platform of events and programs, including WiT Bootcamps,
Phocuswright’s Startup Program, PhocusWire’s Hot25 Travel Startups and Phocuswright’s Launch pitch competition.
“We thank our panel of judges from around the world who’ve put in considerable time and effort to help us select this promising group of finalists,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WiT. “They are as committed as we are to sparking innovation and surfacing
new voices in the global community of travel startups.”
“The feedback from judges on our applicants this year has been great. We received an even spread of entries across the four regions and are encouraged by the growing number of entries from new markets which validates that our mission to run a global competition
is truly reflecting the global ecosystem of startups,” said Pete Comeau, managing director of Phocuswright.
The Global Startup Pitch Competition is supported by Amex GBT, a Phocuswright Strategic Partner of Innovation.