The six start-ups poised to faceoff at Business Travel Show Europe revealed

Competition gives early-stage firms a platform to showcase their innovations to buyers

The six finalists that will vie to win an Innovation Faceoff have been unveiled by the Business Travel Show Europe.

The contest will be broadcast virtually via Swapcard and live streamed during the in-person event which will take place between September 30 and October 1 at ExCeL London.

Louis Magliaro, executive vice president at BTN Group, said: “We’re at a pivotal time for business travel and business travel managers.

“Sustainability, cost management, supplier relationships, TMC value-adds, and traveller-centric policies and programmes are all high on their agenda and discovering innovation that can help achieve all of these – and more – is precisely why buyers attend Business Travel Show Europe year in year out.

“We’re full of anticipation about this year’s Faceoff presentations – we know they are going to blow our minds with the possibilities they open up to buyers and the future of this industry.”

The six finalists are:

Climate Neutral Group – Netherlands-based CNG’s Travel Scan Programme assesses company travel data to find opportunities to reduce or replace flights, reduce business class flights and switch to more efficient routes or flights using more sustainable fuels.

Element Travel Technology – provides corporate travel technology directly to corporate buyers and enables smaller TMCs to provide it to their corporate clients. Element contracts with primary suppliers to support corporate buyers or TMCs with consulting and ongoing servicing.

Grapevine – the white-labelled TMC service uses AI engine Marvin to integrate TMC data sources on booking to identify booking opportunities and provides personalised messages to the traveller or bookers with in-policy recommendations to increase conversions and TMC commissions.

PayPense – Germany’s PayPense eliminates cash advances by making all travel purchases billed and paid by the company. Through sophisticated integration with players including Amadeus Cytric and HRS, pre-booked travel items help generate travel budgets for every trip that enable travellers to pay additional expenses by uploading corresponding receipts.

PredictX – PredictX Scenario Builder allows travel managers to take their historical programme, remove parts of it that are no longer valid, project future volumes and merge them with fare and rate data as it happens, allowing them to instantly see where the programme is trending and to explore the impact of change.

Meetingsbooker.com – a new product offering designed to help global organisations to attract and retain the best talent and empower their teams to succeed from anywhere without sacrificing safety and control will be officially launched at Business Travel Show Europe.

The Business Travel Innovation Faceoff is aimed at giving start-ups a much-needed platform to get airtime and traction for their products and services, as well as to introduce travel buyers to the future of the business travel.

During each of the 20-minute ‘faceoffs’ on September 30 two of the six innovators will present the products, technologies and services they have developed to address industry challenges and support managed business travel, meetings and/or business travellers.

Pitches will be followed by a grilling from the panel of expert judges and on October 1 the winners will be announced.