The number of travel and mobility startups has grown 5% so far in 2021 compared with 2020, according to a report.
Lufthansa Innovation Hub’s Travel and Mobility Tech startup investment report registers 2,800 startups across six segments of ground transportation, aviation, hospitality, advanced technology, on trip assistance and search, inspire, book.
Insight from the study says the travel startup landscape continues to grow despite everything the pandemic has thrown at the travel industry.
Key take-aways from the report reveal that investment in travel startups in 2021 is expected to be back to about $44 billion, having experienced a 14% dip in 2020 to $23 billion.
Surprisingly aviation was the only segment of the six that managed to increase its share of funding in the pandemic.
According to the report aviation startups, which include air taxi, on-demand aviation and space tourism startups, attracted more than half of all travel startup investment during the peak of the pandemic in 2020.
Autonomous and electric vehicle startups were also clear winners in terms of funding last year, a trend that has continued with significant deals for Momenta, Waymo and EasyMile.
The Travel and Mobility Tech startup investment report says ride-hailing startups and travel inspiration newbies were among those that did not fare so well.
Going forward, the report tips technology-heavy startups to do well as the industry drives for increased efficiency.
It says software companies connecting different modes of transport or those startups helping booking platforms with APIs and analytical technologies will lead the way.
Phocuswright's annual State of Startups Report, which has tracked the digital travel startup landscape since 2009, was expecting about half the amount of funding to come the way of startups in 2020 when compared to the previous year.