Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2025: Eco.mio

eco.mio

Headquarters: Berlin

CEO: Katharina Riederer

Website: ecomio.com

Founding date: 2021

Investment: Undisclosed

With the sustainable Eco.mio plug-in for booking tools, companies such as Roland Berger and Kearney have saved 20% of their emissions from business travel and reduced their travel costs. The configurable system motivates employees to choose greener and more cost-efficient travel options through greater transparency, nudging, gamification, carbon taxes and incentivization.

PhocusWire coverage

STARTUP STAGE: Eco.mio helps companies guide employees to choose greener travel options

Sustainable business travel startup Eco.mio raises 7-figure seed round 

Founders Sarah Benarey, Mario Blatter and Katharina Riederer

Strategic goals for 2025

We aim to drive expansion for Eco.mio beyond Germany and diversify our products, positioning ourselves as a European leader in sustainable travel management with an expanded product range.

Our plans include new applications for hotels and rental cars, along with advanced sustainability governance solutions, such as internal CO2 taxation and budget management, to further support sustainable business travel.

Lessons learned since founding

Since founding our Eco.mio, we've gained critical insights into the challenges travel managers face in aligning business travel with sustainability goals. The introduction of European Union regulations requiring not only emission reports but also comprehensive "transition plans" has heightened the need for viable strategies that extend beyond current technological capabilities, particularly in sectors heavily reliant on fossil fuels like business travel. We've also learned that despite economic pressures emphasizing travel costs, the inherent value of business travel cannot be overlooked.

Travel managers frequently express frustration with the rigidity of current online booking tools (OBTs) and the constraints they encounter when adjusting travel policies to cover more sustainable practices. Policies need to maintain essential flexibility while managing costs and environmental impact. This understanding has guided our application of behavioral science at the point of sale and the development of a seamless integration that works independently of and on any OBT, supporting travel managers in meeting both business and sustainability objectives.