The McKinsey study Accelerating Europe: competitiveness for a new era, presented last week in Davos, found that European economies and their companies are losing weight in the global economy: in 2023 the nominal GDP of the United States is more than double that of the of Europe and per capita income up 27%, indicating that the gap has been accelerating since 2010.
A good part of the distancing is due to the lack of entrepreneurship in Europe. Despite this, Spain and Europe are leading regions in world tourism as receiving markets for travelers and some of the global champions of the tourism industry in the different sectors are European-based (Accor, IHG, MHI, IAG, among many others) .
Furthermore, in 2024, according to published reports, of the 20 potential unicorns (new companies with a value of more than 1 billion), the travel industry could be the protagonist, occupying three positions.
In practically all of the 15 unicorns that emerged in 2023 in the tourism industry, technology has been the basis for achieving disruptive and winning business models against companies of relevant size and with many more years in the market.
In this context, TravelTech.vc, which defines itself as the only European venture capital platform specialized in TravelTech, has promoted the venture capital company Travel Tech 2 (TT2). It is, the company explains in a statement, "the natural evolution of TT1 and is conceived as an investment platform whose ambition is to identify and accompany those who will be the leaders in TravelTech in Europe in 2032." The main focus, they continue, is to put the talent of the five managing partners and the advisory board "for the benefit of those entrepreneurs who have high potential fundamentals in their competitive strategy, in their technology, in their talent and in their culture."
TT2, they add, "will invest in companies, in the growth and expansion phase, with business models whose central axis is in the areas of customer, efficiency and immature businesses in technology."
TT2's investment policy, they detail, will prioritize those businesses with "a unique potential value to be uncovered, with a strong commitment to talent, technology and ESG issues and that require a high dose of support from managers in the efficient value creation processes."
The full life of TT2 is estimated at eight years and fundraising has begun to reach its target capital of 50 million, counting on institutional investors, professional private investors, as well as corporate investors, since TT2 will be an efficient tool for that tourism companies channel the outsourcing of their innovation, TravelTech.vc assures.
The company, with a presence in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan and Palma, has five international General Partners with executive experience in leading technology and strategy-based companies in the tourism sector, as well as a relevant track as entrepreneurs, businessmen, investors and venture capital managers.
The general partners are Alex Gisbert, Javier González-Soria and Moreno de la Santa, Toni Raurich-Marcet, Leonardo Saroni and Jorge Schoenenberger.
Likewise, the company integrates into its ecosystem an advisory board made up of more than 80 of the world's top travel and technology companies and entities, as well as a collaboration agreement with the World Tourism Organization that allows it to identify the most promising startups, the company states in its statement.
Since 2017, the venture capital company Travel Tech 1 has successfully invested in TravelTech startups in the acceleration phase, including Troop Travel and Operto.
The year 2024, and in particular the next 12-15 months, point to an exceptional period to invest in the travel sector, according to TravelTech.ch, which expects demand to continue to stably outpace inflation growth.
