Legends has won the 2023 Phocuswright/WebinTravel Global
Startup Pitch event while SquadTrip received the People’s Choice Award.
The competition began in May with more than 120 startups, categorized
by region - Asia Pacific, Europe, Americas, Middle East/Africa – and a Wild
Card division. Winners from each of those 5 categories, along with the winner
of the Korean Travel Startup Pitch, presented during the final round of the
competition Wednesday at WiT Singapore.
“We had such a fantastic class of entrants for the
competition. The innovation that is taking place around the world and in every
sector of travel gives me so much optimism and excitement about the future of
this industry,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WiT.
”At the
same time, it’s getting harder and harder for the gems to come through, hence
we need events like the Global Startup Pitch to surface them.”
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The panel of judges included: Chris Hemmeter, Thayer Ventures; Hermione Joye, Google; James Lemon, Stripe; Johnny Thorsen, Spotnana; Lisa Katsouraki, Etraveli Group; Miriam Moscovici, BCD Travel; Murli Ravi, Tin Men Capital; Simeon Shi, Fliggy; Stephen Snyder, JetBlue Ventures; Tina Di Cicco, Avaya Management; and Oliver Rippel, Asia Partners.
Evaluation criteria included viability, customer appeal, technical innovation, sustainability, team and "X factor."
Founded in 2021, Legends captures
and analyzes first-party customer data to help brands create dynamic profiles to
drive more personalized interactions.
As the winner, Legends receives an
automatic entry to present on stage at The Phocuswright Conference in Fort
Lauderdale in November.
“Now in its second year, the Phocuswright/WebinTravel Global Startup Pitch has
become a premier opportunity for travel tech entrepreneurs to get their
innovations in front of industry leaders,” said Pete Comeau, managing director
of Phocuswright.
“I commend all of these finalists, and we look forward to
having Legends on stage at The Phocuswright Conference in November.”
Said Stephanie Daniel, co-founder and CEO of Legends, “We are excited to have the validation from industry leaders and so appreciate the platform that Phocuswright and WiT are providing to the startup ecosystem. I'm really looking forward to presenting again at The Phocuswright Conference."
Founded in 2022, People’s Choice
Award winner SquadTrip is a B2B company that helps travel agents create, market
and collect payment for group trips.
Other finalists in the competition
included Zytlyn, Direx, Tour Amigo and Travel Makers.
The Global Startup Pitch is part of
WiT and Phocuswright’s ongoing commitment to cultivate innovation, which also
includes Phocuswright's
Innovation: Launch,
Startup Programs, PhocusWire’s
Hot 25 Travel Startups,
WiT Bootcamps and more.
JetBlue Ventures was the global
sponsor of this year’s competition and Stripe and AWS were supporters.