One of the financial backers of Iata’s New Distribution Capability Innovation Fund is withdrawing. Travel Capitalist Ventures cited severely deteriorating global economic and market conditions as affecting early stage investments.
_w=800_h=600_pjpg.jpg?v=20230522122229)
Travel Capitalist Ventures exits Iata’s NDC Innovation Fund
One of the financial backers of Iata’s New Distribution Capability Innovation Fund is withdrawing.
Travel Capitalist Ventures cited severely deteriorating global economic and market conditions as affecting early stage investments.
The process to identify a new investment partner is underway, the airline trade body said.
No NDCIF investments have been made to date, Iata disclosed.
The fund will continue to look for opportunities to support early stage companies seeking to support airline distribution and the NDC standard in particular.
Iata NDC programme director, Yanik Hoyles, said: “We remain strongly committed to the NDCIF as a vehicle for promoting innovation around the NDC standard and we are seeking a new investment partner to support its important mission.”
One emerging source of innovation is NDC ‘hackathons’.
“The successful October 2015 hackathon in Hamburg demonstrated that there are many innovators with NDC-based ideas that are viable prospects for funding,” Hoyles said. “The NDCIF will look to facilitate investments in these and other areas going forward.”
TCV principal, Abrar Ahmad, said: “We remain steadfast supporters of Iata and the NDC Standard, generally speaking and for our own investments, and look forward to even greater adoption by travel companies of all sizes.”
