Travel Tech Investment Trends

No one wants to read a 30+ minute research piece anymore? Maybe. Still worth writing when the data is this good. Just wrapped up this deep dive, with Anna Schneider leading the charge on decoding VC funding dynamics in Travel and Mobility Tech, and what the money is really telling us about the industry’s future. As always with TNMT.com: data-rich, opinionated, and built on a big underlying dataset. Before you throw it into AI, here’s the exec summary: → Travel and Mobility Tech funding remains structurally weak. 2025 brought just $13.2B in funding and fewer than 400 deals (the lowest deal count in our dataset since 2016). So yes, the bearish narrative is real. → Compared to the wider startup ecosystem, Travel and Mobility Tech is underperforming disproportionately. Global VC rebounded in 2025. Travel did not. That gap matters. → Investors are behaving defensively. Average deal sizes hit a record high, while deal count kept falling. In plain English: fewer bets, larger checks, mostly into established names. Investors are funding the last wave of travel innovation more than the next one. → AI is the major exception. Travel is keeping pace with the broader market when it comes to AI startup funding. The capital is clearly flowing. The more interesting part: enterprise AI adoption across travel still remains low. That gap is where much of the opportunity lies. → Two AI themes stand out already. First, autonomous driving. Second, customer service automation is becoming the clearest AI ROI case in travel, especially in online travel, where margins are tight, and efficiency matters more than ever. → The most interesting signals sit below the surface. Once you go beyond the top-line numbers, you find several overlooked pockets of momentum: emerging travel startup ecosystems in markets like SEA, Southern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Oceania. → Aviation Tech is becoming too big to ignore. Nearly every second VC dollar in Travel and Mobility Tech went into Aviation Tech in 2025. Much of that is driven by space and defense-related momentum, which may feel far from commercial travel today, but historically, these technology waves have had a habit of spilling over into aviation faster than many expect. → Sustainable aviation is more alive than it looks. Not necessarily in headline-sized rounds, but in early-stage deal activity. A new generation of startups is entering the decarbonization race, and that matters. → The big conclusion: travel is changing. Just unevenly. The funding picture looks weak if you only read the aggregate numbers. But once you break the market down by tech, region, and segment, a more nuanced story appears. Innovation in travel is not absent. It’s just more concentrated, slower, and harder-won than in other sectors. Humble opinion: If you work in travel, aviation, mobility, or venture, this is one of the clearest “follow the money” views you’ll get. https://lnkd.in/dUA-a6JB

🚨 Huge news: Banks just entered the corporate travel battlefield. Banks are no longer just financing travel. They are building the infrastructure to control it. The announcement that Capital One is acquiring Brex for $5.15B is not just a fintech deal. It’s a structural move into corporate travel, payments, and spend orchestration. Brex brings corporate cards, expense automation, and business payments — and Capital One plans to integrate it directly into its growing travel portal, allowing companies to manage travel spend, payments, and policies in one place. This marks a shift. Until recently, banks focused primarily on leisure and unmanaged travel: loyalty programs, rewards portals, and consumer booking experiences designed to bypass OTAs. With Brex, Capital One is now moving decisively into managed business travel. And it’s not an isolated case. American Express built a full corporate travel stack decades ago. Chase, Citi, and others have developed travel portals tied to loyalty ecosystems. Now Capital One is connecting booking, payment, expense, and policy into a single platform. This is not fintech anymore. It’s the emergence of banks as a new distribution layer in travel. OTAs disrupted travel by owning the booking interface. Banks are now doing something potentially more powerful: they already control payments, data, loyalty, and increasingly the corporate workflow. For hotels and suppliers, the question is no longer just “how do we compete with OTAs?” It’s: 👉 Who will control the decision layer between demand and supply in corporate travel? Because the next battle in distribution may not be fought by OTAs or TMCs — but by banks building end-to-end travel ecosystems. #TravelTech #BusinessTravel #Distribution #Fintech #Hospitality #Payments #AI #CorporateTravel

#WiT2025 Singapore (10/10) on Predictions for the Future of Travel and Hospitality: What changes, what doesn’t. Two lenses were brought on stage: Filip Filipov (COO, OAG) on the tactical now of AI in travel, and Chris Hemmeter (Thayer Investment Partners) on the structural next. Together they sketch a future that is both practical and bold. 1) The AI inflection, tactical and immediate by Filip Filipov Look back 20 years: online overtook offline, mobile became the remote control, payments moved on-platform, new supply exploded, and “connected trip” emerged mostly to sell more efficiently. Today, AI finishes that arc. It’s already in the workflow from inspiration to claims, and adoption is vertical (ChatGPT reached 100M users in ~2 months!). The contrarian point: incumbents may win the AI race because they control scale, data, and distribution and can plug new capabilities in faster than greenfield startups. Filipov’s “won’t change” list resonates: 1- Travel is stressful → AI agents will anticipate & de-stress. 2- We hunt value → deals get deeply personal. 3- We want control → agents recommend, humans decide. 4- We’re lazy → less planning work for the traveler. 5- We crave magic → serendipity engineered into journeys. 6- Supply stays fragmented → orchestration, not elimination. 7- Infra lags apps → intelligence squeezes capacity from what exists. 8- Overtourism → discovery widens beyond 4% of places. 9- Trust compounds → AI agents must prove reliability over time. 10- Believers build → scale + aggregation = incumbent advantage. 2) Structural shifts, ambitious and a bit edgy by Chris Hemmeter - Living as a Service: the walls between hotels, rentals and long-stay soften; users buy flexible living, owners monetize dynamically. - Africa rising: demographics + digital leapfrogging make it a 2045 powerhouse. - Virtual embodiment: execs “attend” via photoreal avatars/robots, trained on their style. - Analog luxury: as automation saturates life, disconnection becomes the new luxury. - Medical tourism, mainstreamed: longevity protocols stitched into resort products. - Extreme ancillaries: airlines unbundle into micro-rights sold dynamically. And yes, the “moonshot” ideas such as suborbital hops, code-governed sea communities, even lunar resorts are provocation by design, but the throughline is clear: physics changes slower than software (still we can expect major changes with robotics); capital and imagination will test the edges. My takeaway of these two inspiring talks: Short term, the winners get boringly excellent at AI-enabled orchestration (service, revenue, risk). Long term, they position for the real estate, wellness and identity shifts already in motion. The topic which was repeated across these talks and many others: trust, which needs to be earned both through humans and AI. #WiT2025 #TravelTech #AI #Future #Hospitality #ConnectedTrip #Orchestration #Innovation #TheWayForward

📊 𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗲𝗦𝗜𝗠𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 The travel eSIM market has quietly evolved from a pandemic-era convenience to one of the fastest-growing segments in telecom. It’s not just about cheaper roaming anymore, but also about who controls the traveler’s first digital connection. Here are five signals that show where this shift is heading 👇 1️⃣ 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 In 2024, travelers downloaded 101 million eSIM profiles, making up 25% of all consumer eSIM activations. That number is projected to hit 425 million by 2030, which is a fourfold increase in just six years. 2️⃣ 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 Only a quarter of smartphones supported eSIM in 2024. By 2030, over 80% of devices will be eSIM-capable, removing the biggest friction in adoption. 3️⃣ 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿 Post-pandemic, travelers expect seamless onboarding with no retail stores, no plastic SIMs. The travelers expect convenience and instant on-arrival connectivity. The eSIM QR code has become the new entry point for connectivity. 4️⃣ 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Players like Holafly (>$500M revenue since the pandemic) and Airalo (now a $1B+ unicorn) show how quickly digital distribution can scale once friction is removed. 5️⃣ 𝗠𝗡𝗢𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 With intermediaries owning the customer relationship, mobile operators are preparing counter-strategies, e.g., MNOs like Globe Telecom and Singtel offering pre-arrival downloadable eSIM profiles to capture inbound roaming before travelers even land. Vodafone has launched a global travel eSIM service to compete with travel MVNOs. 🧭 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: The global travel connectivity market is undergoing a re-architecting. Distribution, pricing, and loyalty are all moving upstream. The winners will be those who build direct, digital-first access to travelers long before takeoff. #eSIM #Telecom #TravelTech #Connectivity #Roaming #traveleSIM #DigitalTransformation #MobileIndustry

Booking.com stock is falling rapidly. Is the AI revolution already knocking on its door? We might be witnessing the beginning of a structural shift in travel. For 20 years the model was simple: Guest → Google → OTA → Hotel But what happens when the journey becomes: Guest → AI Agent → Direct booking API → Hotel AI agents will soon: • Compare rates instantly across platforms • Bundle flights + stays + mobility • Personalize recommendations in seconds • Book automatically based on user preferences If search friction disappears, the traditional OTA moat weakens. The real risk for Booking.com isn’t that people stop traveling. The risk is losing control of the interface. That said, let’s not underestimate them. Booking still controls: • Massive global inventory • Payment infrastructure • Fraud systems • Reviews at scale • Hotel integrations worldwide AI agents will still need structured inventory and reliable APIs. And Booking is perfectly positioned to become the infrastructure layer powering those agents. The question is not whether AI changes travel. It will. The question is: Who owns demand in an AI-driven world? For operators (hotels, serviced apartments, hybrid living concepts), this is the moment to: • Strengthen direct booking • Own guest data • Invest in revenue tech • Integrate APIs properly • Use AI before it uses you AI won’t destroy travel platforms overnight. But it will compress margins, increase transparency and reward agility. Big changes are coming. Are we ready? #AI #TravelTech #Hospitality #RevenueManagement #OTA #Innovation #FutureOfTravel #PropTech

Marriott is spending over $1B on infrastructure. That sounds ridiculous until you understand what is happening in travel. AI doesn't browse like Google. It consumes inventory: rates, availability, policies, loyalty benefits, etc. And it can only recommend what it can read and access instantly. Travel executives think AI will create the next winners. I think AI will expose the winners that already exist. When I worked at Booking.com, hotels constantly asked for better rankings and were voluntarily raising their own commissions from 15% to 18–30% just to appear higher. Visibility was everything.  Back then, it didn't matter if their systems supported real-time data. But now it matters. Hotels used to compete for clicks. Soon they'll compete for inclusion in Claude, ChatGPT, and others. That's why Marriott is investing over $1B to make its inventory readable by AI. And Hilton is consolidating guest data into unified profiles. Whoever becomes AI's preferred inventory source captures the booking and the margin. This shift is invisible to travelers but it's happening inside CRS platforms and PMS systems. Hotels stuck on old systems lose by default. They will become increasingly dependent on OTAs that already have AI-ready feeds. The battle in travel right now is over who becomes AI's default source of truth. When AI searches for a hotel in your city tonight, does it find your property or just Booking.com's listing of it? #TravelTech #Hotels #OTA #AI

Why do our 2025 trends look similar to previous years? Feeling a little jaded that some of these trends appear year after year, I wanted to suggest a 2025 wish-list of ‘how’ we could work, in addition to ‘what’ we might focus on. Four suggestions on how the travel industry can grow and innovate faster: 1. Embrace Open Innovation and Data Sharing: Break down industry silos by creating collaborative ecosystems. Establish open APIs, share anonymized data sets, and create innovation hubs that bring together startups, established players, and tech companies. 2. Prioritize End-to-End Digital Transformation: Move beyond digitizing existing processes and reimagine the entire customer journey with a digital-first, mobile-first approach. Enable real-time, personalized experiences while ensuring data privacy and security. 3. Foster a Culture of Experimentation and Sustainability: Encourage risk-taking and rapid testing of new ideas through innovation labs and hackathons. Simultaneously, prioritize innovations that help travelers make eco-friendly choices. 4. Accelerate Adoption of Emerging Technologies: Move quickly from pilots to full-scale implementation of AI, blockchain, and IoT technologies where benefits are clear. Focus on innovations that enable seamless interoperability to enhance the travel experience. And here’s our ‘lucky 7’ trends industry trends where we see biggest commercial and traveller opportunities: 1. AI-Powered Personalized Experiences: Advanced AI systems will revolutionize trip planning and on-site experiences, generating highly customized itineraries and real-time recommendations. 2. Unified Commerce in Hospitality: Hotels and hospitality platforms will increasingly integrate online and offline payments. Stripe's FreedomPay partnership, extensive industry connections, and Terminal product will be key enablers. 3. Blockchain-Powered Loyalty and Membership Programs: Decentralized, interoperable loyalty programs using blockchain technology will emerge across multiple travel brands, leveraging Stripe's subscription, crypto and stablecoin capabilities. 4. Next-Gen Payment Methods for Global Travel: The adoption of new payment technologies will accelerate, including stablecoin payments for international travel and invisible payments integrated into travel experiences. 5. Sustainable and Responsible Travel Tech: Platforms focusing on eco-friendly travel options, carbon offsetting, and supporting local communities will gain prominence. 6. Frictionless Guest Experiences: Travel companies will focus on creating seamless, touchless experiences throughout the customer journey, from booking to check-out. 7. Travel Agency Fund Flow Optimization: Travel agencies will seek more efficient ways to manage complex fund flows from consumers to suppliers. Stripe's combination of Payments, Connect, Automated Invoicing, and Issuing could offer a comprehensive solution for this industry challenge. Have a great start to the year!

#TravelAgain Daily: AI Didn't Kill the Travel Advisor. It Created a Unicorn. For three years, we've been told AI would replace travel advisors. This week, the first $1 billion AI travel agency proved the opposite. Everyone will focus on the headline. "AI-powered travel agency Fora hits unicorn status, raises $60M" https://lnkd.in/ejZvpB9Y But I think they're missing the more important takeaway. One of the fastest-growing AI companies in travel built its entire business around... travel advisors. That's not a contradiction. It's validation. Fora Travel's technology doesn't replace the advisor. It removes the administrative work that has historically limited advisor productivity - research, proposals, itineraries, supplier management, commission tracking, workflows and operations - allowing advisors to spend more time where they create real value: understanding clients, solving problems and delivering better travel experiences. In many ways, this reflects a broader trend we're seeing across travel enterprise software. This round of winners aren't asking whether AI replaces humans. They're asking how AI makes experienced advisors dramatically more productive. Travel has always been a relationship business. When something goes wrong, travelers still want someone who knows them. When they're planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip, they still value judgment over generated content. And when suppliers want their highest-value customers, they still benefit from trusted advisors who influence purchasing decisions. AI makes each of those interactions better. It doesn't eliminate them. There is another lesson here for the broader travel industry. For years, many investors viewed travel as a mature, low-growth sector. But companies like Fora Travel are demonstrating that if you combine modern software, AI-native workflows and scalable business models, travel can attract technology valuations. That's another signal, like recent Navan and American Express Global Business Travel valuations, the market may be finally ready to value travel technology differently. And that's great news for the travel industry. #TravelAgainDaily #TravelTech #ArtificialIntelligence #TravelAdvisors #TravelIndustry #TravelInnovation #TravelTechnology Thomas Christopoul Henry Harteveldt Dave Hilfman Bruce McIndoe Linda McNairy Julie Shainock Ed Silver Rob Torres Travel Again Advisory

$700M invested. 2% adoption.  Travel tech is caught in a prisoner's dilemma. Skift just published the numbers. 80% of travel executives plan to deploy AI agents at scale within five years. Only 2% of consumers are willing to let AI book a trip on their behalf. Most people read this as a disconnect. I read it as a trap. Every major player — Booking, Expedia, Sabre, Amadeus — would rationally prefer not to spend hundreds of millions on a product nobody is using yet. But if Booking invests and you don't, you lose the moment the market turns. That moment is impossible to predict, and you can't afford to miss it. So everyone invests. Simultaneously. In infrastructure for a customer who doesn't exist yet. From the inside, as I see it, this is the only move you've got. The asymmetry is brutal.  The cost of not investing is existential.  The cost of negative ROI is just financial. If AI actually reshapes travel and you sit it out, you don't recover from that. You don't get to wait and see. Prisoner's dilemma works exactly this way. Both players know investing together would be cheaper. Neither can go first. Consumers don't trust AI to book yet. And it doesn’t look like that's changing anytime soon. Travel tech is too complex for fast integration. The industry keeps asking: why don't consumers rely on AI? The better question is: When will travel infrastructure actually be ready for AI agents? And how much will be invested by then?

📈 The AI Boom Isn’t Just Transforming Tech — It’s Powering a Travel Renaissance 🛫 Recent data from Visa shows that the AI investment boom in the Asia-Pacific — especially in semiconductor, data centre and advanced tech hubs like Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Malaysia — isn’t just boosting economic fundamentals, it’s reshaping consumer behaviour. ✈️ Travel emerged as the standout consumer category in 2025, with travel merchant spend growing 2.5x faster than average consumer spending — and cross-border spending surging. That tells us something: even in times of global economic uncertainty, people prioritise experiences. Several trends stand out: 🌏 Outbound travel demand is rising as incomes grow in AI-linked economies. 🎎 Inbound tourism is strong in destinations like Japan, South Korea and China — buoyed by pop culture and ease of travel. 💳 Affluent travellers are central to the growth story, accounting for a large share of incremental spend. 📊 Consumer preferences have permanently shifted — travellers now prioritise travel even over other discretionary spend categories. For business leaders in travel, hospitality, fintech, and marketing, this is a call to action: 👉 Innovate around personalised travel experiences 👉 Leverage data and AI to better understand cross-border spend patterns 👉 Invest in customer journeys that bridge digital convenience and human delight AI is clearly much more than a tech sector story — it’s fuel for growth across industries, and travel is one of the most visible beneficiaries so far. ✨ More here: https://lnkd.in/gUm8mEua #AI #ConsumerTrends #TravelIndustry #APAC #Singapore