TravelTechShow has named Acai Travel, one of PhocusWire’s Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2024, the winner of its 2025 Trailblazer Awards. Founded in 2023, Acai provides artificial intelligence (AI) agents to the travel industry, connecting with customer relationship managers (CRMs) and global distribution systems (GDSs) to automate tasks, from fare rules to communications.
The award comes after Acai competed with four other finalists in a “Dragons’ Den” style travel technology innovation showcase. Finalists also included Spark, Trawelt, Travel Intelligence and Zetexa.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
“For us, it's great validation from an expert panel of judges that what we're doing at Acai is really making meaningful change in the travel operation space,” said Ron Glickman, head of sales for Acai.
The Trailblazer Awards were judged by Pete Comeau, managing director of Phocuswright, Andreas Nau, partner of Ennea Capital Partners, Joshua Ryan-Saha, director of Traveltech for Scotland, and Gerry Samuels, CEO of Travel Capital.
The contestants were judged based on the following criteria:
- Potential impact
- How well the presented solution addressed the TravelTech Show’s audience’s needs as they seek to modernize customer experience, deliver better choices, improve sustainability, remain agile and cut costs
- How well suggested solutions deliver on solving the problems they are designed to address.
“Congratulations to the Acai team who demonstrated with their traction so far they are solving a clear need to streamline and improve customer contact operations,” Nau said. “Kudos to all the finalists who are truly delivering the solutions that people across the industry need.”
Glickman said events like the TravelTech Show and the Trailblazer Awards are important for early-stage companies, as they offer exposure to stakeholders who want to make a difference.
“There are also a lot of innovative travel tech startups that you can establish new partnerships with,” Glockman said. “Being able to say that we have been put through our paces, not just by our investors but also by the judges to get that recognition, means the world to us."
In addition to guidance and mentorship from the contest judges, Acai will receive a free stand at next year's TravelTech Show, from June 24 to 26 in London and an opportunity to speak on its startup panel. It will also receive a startup ticket to Phocuswright Europe 2026.