Avanera ist das Travel Start-up 2023 und gewann das TIC & VIR Travel Start-up Night Finale 2023

Munich, December 8, 2023 – It was a nail-biting finale: The expert jury and the participants at the Travel Start-up Night finals hosted by TIC and VIR 2023 visibly struggled to choose between the young founders and their innovative business ideas for the tourism industry. In the end, the Augsburg-based company Avanera , with its newly developed software that combines sustainability and profitability in the hotel industry, took the prize.

“Start-ups are the drivers of innovation in the tourism industry. That is why it is important for the industry to make room for them and to foster collaboration and exchange. With this format, we are bringing the industry and the start-up scene together,” emphasized Markus Tressel, President of the Travel Industry Club e.V. (TIC), in his opening remarks. Around 100 guests accepted the invitation from the TIC and the Verband Internet Reisevertrieb e.V. (VIR) to the premises of Touristik Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH (TVG) in Munich and showed great interest in the finalists’ business ideas.

VIR Board Member Michael Buller summarized their journey to the final round: 40 startup founders had applied for this year’s four Travel Startup Nights organized by TIC and VIR in Stuttgart, Cologne, Munich, and Zurich. At each event, five participants were given the opportunity to present their entrepreneurial vision for the industry. All first-place winners from the preliminary rounds, as well as the two best second-place finishers, advanced to the grand finale in Munich.

“It’s important that we provide a platform for young entrepreneurs and their innovative business models,” emphasized Michael Buller. At the same time, he thanked the competition’s numerous sponsors, who made it possible to offer a prize package worth around 100,000 euros to the top three winners—“more than ever before,” the VIR board member noted with delight. The package included valuable services tailored specifically to startups—including consulting sessions and coaching, media exposure and interviews, event tickets, association memberships, hotel and rental car vouchers, as well as trade show appearances.

Sponsors for Travel Start-up 2023 include: ADVANT Beiten, billiger-mietwagen.de, BWH Hotels, Claudia Freimuth, Connoisseur Circle,Dorint Hotels & Resorts – Essential by Dorint, Dr. Fried & Partner GmbH, einfach. kommunikationsdesign,ennea capital partners, everyworks, FTI GROUP, fvw | TravelTalk, Global Communication Experts GmbH, ITB Berlin, Meta, Next Floor, Radio Frankfurt, Realizing Progress, Reise vor9, SOLASOLUTION GmbH, Sunny Cars GmbH, travelholics_podcast & The Travel Consulting Group GmbH

Ines Gannes of NeedNect Solutions, winner of the 2022 Travel Start-up Nights, hosted the evening. She introduced the six finalists and their diverse business ideas: AlpacaCamping, AOYO Audioguides, avanera, oneGuide, Urban Monkeys, and wependio.

All of them used the ten-minute presentation slot to introduce themselves and their innovations for the tourism industry. The range of innovations spanned from audio guides for road trips (AOYO) to an AI-powered tour guide app (One Guide) and a democratized data analytics platform for the industry (Urban Monkeys).

Avanera ultimately won the title of “Travel Start-up 2023” with a newly developed software solution that combines sustainability and cost-effectiveness across all areas of a hotel and makes them measurable. The software is designed to help hotels better manage their resource consumption and make it more efficient and sustainable. Avanera supports the hotel throughout the entire process, from assessing and analyzing the current situation to implementing hotel-specific measures. The software also offers the ability to have all relevant data available in one place in a clear and structured manner.

Wependio came in second place with its all-in-one AI travel app, which already allows users to book over two million accommodations and experiences. Close behind, the sharing economy platform Alpaca Camping took third place. The young company has already facilitated over 100,000 overnight stays at unique and nature-oriented campsites.

The finalists were evaluated by a distinguished panel of judges comprising experts from various sectors of the tourism industry. Their assessment was based on five criteria: innovation, business model, unique selling proposition (USP), relevance to the industry, and the founder/team. The 15-member jury’s evaluation accounted for 80 percent of the final score, while the remaining 20 percent came from a vote by the live audience.

On the final evening, TIC and VIR announced the launch of the 2024 Travel Startup Competition, which will take place on January 18, 2024, as part of the CMT travel fair in Stuttgart. Registration is now open at https://cvent.me/PK41Av, and applications should be sent to info@v-i-r.de or office@travelindustryclub.de.

You can download the press release as a PDF here.