Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2025: Byway

Byway

Headquarters: London

CEO: Cat Jones

Website: Byway

Founding date: 2020

Investment: £8 million

Byway is aiming for 100% flight-free holidays with its JourneyAI technology. The startup offers trips across Europe, including overland transport, hand-picked accommodation and on-demand expert advice, all with a low carbon footprint. Since our inception in March 2020, we've booked 10,000 travelers onto unforgettable holidays, with 96% five-star reviews and 3x YOY growth.

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Founder Cat Jones

Strategic goals for 2025

This year, we've more than doubled our departures and expanded the regions in which we offer our flight-free holidays. Our primary focus, as ever, has been on helping our customers love their journeys - discovering the joys of travelling through and stopping off, rather than flying over, which we've managed with 96% five star reviews. New regions we've launched this year include Albania, Bosnia and Finland, and we're growing our team especially in tech and data science, adding new leadership in finance and operations.

Our mission is to make flight-free travel mainstream, which means not just saving carbon versus flying with each trip, but also promoting off-season travel, taking tourists away from hotspot locations using 'hotspot penalties' in JourneyAl and partnering with tourist boards to showcase less-visited places.

In July 2024, we raised €5 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by Heartcore Capital, with participation from Eka Ventures and re-investing Byway angels. The funds are being used to accelerate the technical investments we're making in our proprietary journey-planning technology, JourneyAl and to expand our sales markets from the U.S. and U.K. into Europe (via our new Dutch company) and beyond.

Lessons learned since founding

Since founding Byway, I've learned how very important it is to actively stop and celebrate success along the way. It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, but by prioritizing team well-being and celebrating wins in real time, we ensure we love the journey we're on building this company together. From weekly team shoutouts in Slack to monthly socials and annual company retreats, these moments help us reflect on what we've achieved together and nurture our sense of connection and shared purpose.

I've also learnt the paramount importance of hiring for empathy and customer centricity. By listening closely to our customers and supporting and challenging each other to continuously improve the experience we offer, we're creating really loveable holiday experiences, with loyalty and referrals fueling our expansion. Surrounding ourselves with talented, aligned people has been crucial - from team to investors, having the right people around us has made all the difference.