Created in January 2019 by Tristan Daube, the Saint-Etienne start-up took advantage of the CES show in Las Vegas to present its connected travel concierge service and thus begin its international marketing.
A fundraiser in preparation
He told the Journal des Entreprises: “Our service, also known as a connected travel assistant, is aimed at travel agencies and tour operators who wish to offer their customers an all-in-one solution to stay in touch with them. 24 hours a day and send them at all times the information and documents they need during their trip”, explains Tristan Daube, who took advantage of the CES to “identify technological partnerships” and “start to be referenced in the United States. and in Canada.
Fundraising to expand its scope
Tristan Daube, who is targeting “English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries”, would prepare a fundraiser of “between 1 and 3 million euros by the end of the first quarter of 2023”. After raising 500,000 euros at the end of 2021, TravelAsssist.io is counting on this new funding round to accelerate the marketing of its service in France and above all to start its international deployment.
250 contracts with travel agencies
“The health crisis slowed down our marketing, which only really restarted in 2022. Between January and December, we went from 80 customers to 250 contracts with travel agencies. This is accelerating considerably, ”says Tristan Daube with satisfaction.
A mobile application to adapt to small agencies
The “GeniusTravel.io” mobile application was launched in March last year. The start-up, which began by working as a white label for agencies, by integrating its connected concierge service into their mobile applications, decided to opt for its own application.
“We realized that the smallest agencies did not necessarily have the means to have their own app to offer our service to their clients. We have therefore developed our own tool so that they can offer our connected travel assistant to their customers”, relates the manager, who in the end grouped together his entire white or gray label offer on this new tool.
TravelAssist wants to double its travel agency clientele
Now equipped to accelerate its deployment, the Saint-Etienne start-up aims to double its agency clientele in France and sign its first international contracts. “We are also going to accelerate our technological research around natural language recognition and machine learning to improve the speed and quality of responses from our service,” continues Tristan Daube, who is planning between 5 and 7 recruitments this year.
Text prepared with information published in the Journal des Entreprises
