Skift Top Travel Startups to Watch 2019

Skift puts the needs of travel industry leaders first when we judge startups. We hope our recommendations provide a lucrative partnership or help solve a pain point. Below is Skift's list of the world's top 25 travel startups to watch in 2019. The list is in alphabetical order. Aviasales Phuket, Thailand Travel search where global companies fear to tread Money Raised: $10 million Headline Investors: iTech Skift Take: This year the Aviasales group of brands will generate $1.3 billion in lead referrals from consumers in Eastern Europe and Russia to airlines, flight online travel agencies, and companies like BlaBlaCar and Booking.com. The startup claims that, since 2015, it has grown at a compound annual rate of 30 percent while keeping in the black. Its Travelpayouts brand generates revenue for third parties by the resale of flights, hotels, insurance, and airport transfers. Meanwhile Aviasales is the most-used airfare metasearch engine in Eastern Europe and Russia. In the past year it expanded into Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. The growth is a welcome rebound from 2014, when the company had to weather average commissions falling 40 percent in the course of six months while also enduring Russian's ruble crisis. Aviasales now has a big lead over Expedia and Kayak, and it competes well against China-owned Skyscanner and Russia's Yandex. Ayenda Hotels Medellin, Colombia Oyo-style branded budget hotels pop up in Latin America Money Raised: $1.25 million Headline Investors: SoftBank Skift Take: Oyo has popularized a business model of renovating budget hotels, running them efficiently with snappier technology, and marketing them to consumers under its brand. Oyo focuses on India and China. Ayenda, in contrast, has taken a similar approach in Latin America, where it has 50 properties. The startup, co-founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur Andrés Sarrazola, recently received a small investment from Oyo's biggest backer, SoftBank. Beekeeper Zürich, Switzerland Like a Slack for the travel sector's non-deskbound workforces Money Raised: $26 million Headline Investors: Atomico, Keen Venture Partners, and Samsung NEXT Skift Take: Many hotel housekeepers and other non-desk workers feel disconnected, both literally and figuratively. Beekeeper has built tools aimed to help hotel owners engage with their hourly workers as well as they do their salaried ones. Its mobile app is like a messaging service that acts