STARTUP STAGE: Arcube helps fliers convert loyalty points to ancillaries

Arcube

Arcube provides a post-flight solution for fliers to convert their loyalty points to personalized ancillaries to be used on future flights.

Founded in 2022, the company aims to help airlines to improve revenue and foster customer loyalty.

 

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

• Arcube has introduced one of the industry’s first "post-flight solutions" that enables passengers to instantly convert their idle loyalty points into hyper-personalized ancillaries after a flight, which can be used on future bookings.
• Our platform analyzes a passenger’s travel history, market data and hundreds of other factors to predict and increase the likelihood of a passenger returning to an airline.
• We help airlines, such as Etihad Airways, unlock significant revenue and foster customer loyalty.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

• Business: Airlines are facing declining customer loyalty, especially from infrequent travelers who don’t benefit from traditional points-based rewards. Arcube’s post-flight solution enables passengers to redeem tailored ancillaries for future travel, leading to repeat bookings and stronger brand loyalty.
• Technology: Arcube integrates data from airline systems and other sources to analyze customer behavior, market conditions and hundreds of additional factors, including real-time elements like airport queue times and competitor pricing. Using a hybrid artificial intelligence model, we predict and personalize offers for each traveler post-flight. Our system dynamically adjusts pricing to maximize revenue and optimize loyalty point usage.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the Company.

• Strengths: First-mover advantage in post-flight ancillary personalization, a robust pipeline of airlines and strong partnerships with ancillary providers.
• Weaknesses: Dependence on airline adoption speed and integration timelines. High level of customization to be compatible with existing loyalty and ancillary revenue models
• Opportunities: Operating in a growing global ancillary revenue market ($212B in 2023) had the opportunity to expand into OTAs, TMCs, hotels and car rental markets.
• Threats: Slow airline adoption cycles due to legacy infrastructure.

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

• Customer perspective: Traditional airline loyalty programs primarily benefit frequent fliers, leaving occasional travelers with little to no incentives to stay loyal, causing them to choose airlines based on price and convenience through online travel agencies and price comparison sites.
• Industry perspective: Airlines struggle to differentiate themselves beyond price and schedule and ancillary sales and loyalty programs are underutilized due to poor personalization. Airlines rely on standard emails and feedback forms that passengers often ignore, underutilizing the critical post-flight phase of the passenger journey to unlock additional revenue.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

•  Direct airline sales: We have garnered interest from more than 14 airlines, including Etihad (MVP pilot).

• Strategic distribution partnerships: Our partnerships with companies such as GigSky, GetTransfer and general sales agents (GSAs) such as Flight Directors provide us access to more than 130 airlines.
• Community and network effects: We are building niche industry communities for airline loyalty and ancillary executives. Our strong advisory board, including the founders of PointsYeah.com, the chairman of Pegasus Airlines and successful exited founders, supports us with valuable referrals.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

We validated the post-flight concept with more than 20 airlines by understanding their current post-flight practices and the challenges they face, such as relying on lowering fares to stay competitive and the difficulty of retaining passengers within traditional loyalty program framework.

The Etihad MVP saw 16.5 million Etihad miles spent on post-flight ancillaries, generating seven-figure additional revenue through repeat bookings and increasing the average customer spend by 10.3%.

How and when will you make money?

We are already revenue generating and profitable. Arcube operates on a transaction based revenue model, charging a 4-9% fee on each ancillary redemption, whether paid in cash or loyalty points.

This ensures that we only make money when airlines make money, making our service low-risk and high-reward for partners.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?

Prithveesh Reddy (CEO) and Harvey Lowe (chief operating officer) founded and sold their first companies while still teenagers. Prithveesh later worked in startups and venture capital, sourcing deals in fintech and travel. After his exit, Harvey gained finance experience at UtmostGroup and Nedbank Private Wealth. He is also a former national swimming champion and competed internationally for the UK.

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

At Arcube, we focus on building the best team by prioritizing skills, talent and impact. Our hiring approach naturally attracts individuals from diverse backgrounds, ensuring a range of perspectives that drive innovation. We don’t rely on quotas but emphasize merit-based recruitment to create a high-performing team committed to transforming airline loyalty.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

• Introducing a new concept: Post-flight ancillary sales didn’t exist before, so demonstrating its value required real-world success stories and data.
• Balancing growth and development: Scaling while refining our AI-driven personalization meant prioritizing both airline needs and product innovation.
• Navigating long sales cycles: Building trust and securing partnerships took time, as airlines carefully evaluate new technology and integrations.

 Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

Arcube is the first mover in post-flight ancillaries and technology, pioneering a new revenue channel in an untapped market.

• Proprietary AI-driven technology: Our self-optimizing algorithms personalize offers using real-time market factors, customer behavior and dynamic pricing, making Arcube irreplaceable.
• Proven success and momentum: Our MVP with Etihad generated seven figures in additional revenue, and with more than 14 airlines in the pipeline, we have strong market demand. Furthermore, the backing of top travel and airline executives in our most recent funding round serves as undeniable proof of our value and potential.

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in?

We plan to be live with multiple airlines, fully integrated into their PSS and loyalty systems, driving post-flight ancillary sales at scale. Our AI-powered personalization engine will be optimizing millions of passenger interactions, refining dynamic pricing and strategies to drive additional revenue.

With strong airline adoption, we aim to be the industry standard for post-flight intelligence, expanding into OTAs and hotel loyalty programs to broaden our reach.

What is your end-game? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)

Our primary focus is becoming the market leader in post-flight technology and loyalty. Once we establish a strong foothold in aviation, we plan to expand our technology to OTAs, hotels, cruise lines, railways and the broader travel industry.

While we remain open to strategic opportunities, our priority is scaling with major airlines, refining our AI capabilities and building the world’s first post-flight data set—helping travel providers understand how to retain passengers and drive revenue at scale.