As we wrapped up Stripe’s fourth annual Innovation Evening — co-hosted with Travel Massive and the Entrepreneur Collective in June 2025 — I found myself reflecting on the state of the travel technology landscape across Europe.
This year’s event, following a busy week at Travel Tech Europe, offered a compelling window into the future of an industry experiencing profound transformation.
If there’s one overarching narrative emerging from our Innovation Evening, it’s that travel technology has entered a new renaissance period. Gone are the days when travel tech simply meant online booking or basic itinerary management. Today’s innovators are tackling deeper structural challenges and pursuing opportunities that fundamentally reimagine the traveler experience.
Six innovative travel startups pitched to our judging panel of European travel investors.
The six startups that pitched at our event exemplified this evolution. EventWise demonstrated a sophisticated approach to performance measurement and profitability in the events and ticketing space, moving beyond simple attendance metrics to holistic financial optimization. Vessa showcased how hyper-personalization can transform dining experiences through complex preference management and dietary accommodation—a far cry from basic table reservation systems of the past.
One founder and startup addressing a massive opportunity was Perez from Vanity Pass, who challenged one of travel’s most entrenched paradigms by reimagining loyalty for the “99% of travelers unserved by big reward programs.” This democratization of travel perks represents a significant shift from the elite-focused programs of airlines, credit cards and hotel groups that have dominated for decades.
The evening’s winner, Yuru Guo from Hey Food is Ready, delivered a pitch that perfectly blended the scale and ambition of a much needed global SaaS platform and marketplace with tons of potential for growth, with an incredibly inspiring and valuable mission, centered around showcasing the work of local chefs, underrepresented communities and better food options - what’s not to love!
I was also particularly impressed with Barry Klipp of InterLnkd, whose founder journey I’ve been following for several years. Having first encountered Barry two years ago, I’ve watched him mature as a founder, refining his concept into a sophisticated personalized digital in-flight magazine with marketplace capabilities. His evolution exemplifies how founders in this space develop and refine their thinking as they gain deeper industry understanding, moving from initial concepts to comprehensive solutions.
The travel itinerary space, fuelled by AI, is a popular space for innovation, and it was great to see such a passionate presentation from Emma and Alex at TripMapper. This team will be one to watch as they build brand awareness and momentum, at a time when consumers are exploring new ways to plan trips with AI.
Even audience members revealed fascinating niche innovations: I met Founders building specialized travel agencies focused on educational family experiences and pet-friendly travel planning, among other ideas. These micro-innovations demonstrate how today’s travel tech ecosystem is increasingly addressing previously overlooked traveler needs and behaviors.
Our panel discussion with venture capital leaders revealed remarkably consistent optimism about travel and travel technology as an investment category. Bobby from Roch Ventures articulated a particularly striking perspective that technology spending by travel companies could potentially double in the coming years to reach parity with other e-commerce sectors. This prediction aligns with broader industry assessments that travel has historically underinvested in technology relative to its economic importance.
James Lemon (Stripe), Bobby Demri (Roch Ventures), Lucille Cornet (Eight Roads), and Kiu Kim (Beringea).
Europe’s position as a travel innovation hub received particular emphasis from our panelists - with travel being such a key part of so many European economies today. While Silicon Valley has traditionally dominated tech investment conversations, the concentration of travel expertise, established industry players, and diverse regulatory environments makes Europe uniquely positioned for travel innovation. This geographic advantage appears increasingly recognized by the investment community.
Kiu Kim from Beringea and Lucille Cornet from Eight Roads shared particular enthusiasm for artificial intelligence applications in travel, noting that we’re only beginning to see AI’s transformative potential in the sector.
They highlighted several domains ripe for innovation:
The panel’s consensus reflected a conviction that travel tech investments in 2025-2026 will increasingly target these foundational challenges rather than merely creating new consumer-facing applications built atop existing infrastructure.
One of the evening’s most enlightening segments came from Sally Bunnell of Navi Savi, who won Stripe’s innovation competition last year. Matthew Gardiner‘s interview with Sally offered invaluable insights into the evolving founder experience in travel technology.
Matthew Gardiner (Director, London Travel Massive) interviews Sally Bunnell (Founder, Navi Savi).
As an American founder establishing presence in Europe, Sally emphasized the critical importance of physical presence in key European markets despite the supposed borderlessness of digital business. The “robustness of the startup ecosystem” in Europe, combined with the concentration of potential partners and customers, makes on-the-ground engagement essential.
Having known Sally for a year now, I also wanted to highlight the particular challenges facing female founders in an industry where decision-making positions remain disproportionately held by men. Her unbounded energy and optimism serves as a powerful counterpoint to traditional industry dynamics, making her one of the industry’s real characters and a phenomenal role model. Her approach—developing deep product conviction, adding a massive dose of enthusiasm, and refusing to take no for an answer—offers a template for successful founder behavior regardless of background.
This perspective on founder diversity and approach is particularly relevant as travel technology moves from early-stage disruption to mature innovation. The competitive differentiation increasingly comes not just from novel ideas but from execution quality, team composition, and go-to-market strategy—areas where diverse leadership demonstrates measurable advantages.
During the event, I shared Stripe’s vision for how emerging technologies are reshaping the industry’s future. Perhaps most significant is the evolution towards Agentic AI search, booking, and payments, and moving beyond the traditional “search box” on websites and apps that has dominated travel planning for decades.
The rise of AI and agentic travel points toward a fundamentally different model: one where travelers search, book and pay for travel in a host of new and emerging popular channels, while expressing their travellers desires and building itineraries through natural language, preferences, feelings, and budget parameters rather than rigid date-destination queries. This shift enables a more organic discovery process where travel components can be dynamically assembled based on contextual understanding of traveler intent.
This technical evolution creates cascading implications for the industry’s commercial structure. The future will likely see travel agencies of the future enabling a single traveller facing interface for seamlessly booking an entire trip, while digitally revenue sharing, splitting commissions, and hiding some of the complexity that travelers have to face today. This behind-the-scenes orchestration—where payment flows and commercial arrangements become invisible to the traveler—represents a significant departure from today’s fragmented purchasing journey.
Beyond AI, our discussions touched on other transformative technologies including stablecoins and blockchain-based solutions. While cryptocurrency adoption in travel remains limited, the potential for stablecoins to address currency volatility and cross-border payment friction represents a particularly compelling use case for an inherently international industry.
My colleague Jason Thong articulated how Stripe’s infrastructure positions travel startups for accelerated growth. By building on Stripe’s platform, emerging travel companies gain immediate access to sophisticated payment capabilities, fraud protection, and a global network effect that would be impossible to replicate independently.
Jason Thong (EMEA @ Stripe) shares insights into the company’s innovations that enable customers to scale.
This infrastructure advantage becomes particularly critical as travel companies expand internationally. Jason emphasized how Stripe enables startups to “plan their conquest in Europe, the US, and beyond” with confidence—addressing the complex payment localization challenges that often derail international expansion efforts.
The integration of payments into broader business operations—rather than treating them as a separate function—emerged as a key theme. Modern travel companies increasingly recognize that payment flows represent not just a transactional necessity but a strategic asset that can drive conversion, reduce abandonment, and create competitive differentiation.
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of our Innovation Evening was witnessing the collaborative spirit among established industry leaders, emerging startups, and investors. Despite operating in a competitive marketplace, participants demonstrated remarkable openness in sharing insights, offering mentorship, and exploring partnerships.
Travel Massive and Stripe connect thousands of travel innovators at events worldwide — learn more
This collaborative ethos will prove essential as the industry navigates significant headwinds. The technological forces around AI implementation, potential disruption from stablecoins, and ongoing political uncertainties will test even the most resilient organizations.
However, by maintaining an ecosystem approach—“sharing ideas and collaborating”—the industry is positioning itself for collective success. Ultimately, this idea of community is at the heart of what Travel Massive is all about, and Stripe is delighted to play a part in enabling the travel industry, both through events, and our technology.
The travel sector’s traditional fragmentation has often hindered innovation, with stakeholders protecting proprietary advantages rather than pursuing collaborative advancement. The shift toward greater openness and ecosystem thinking represents a significant maturation that will likely accelerate progress across the entire value chain.
As we look toward the remainder of 2025 and beyond, Stripe remains incredibly bullish on travel technology’s future. The convergence of technological capability, investment interest, founder quality, and industry openness creates unprecedented conditions for meaningful innovation.
The outcomes of this innovation wave will be multifaceted: better experiences for travelers, transforming the way they shop and think about loyalty, and build an ecosystem of high growth, sustainable businesses. These improvements will benefit not just industry participants but travelers themselves—making exploration more accessible, personalized, and friction-free.
Stripe is proud to position itself at the heart of a global ecosystem offering cutting-edge payments, world-class fraud tools, leading uptime, and an investment roadmap unparalleled by peers in the sector.
By providing the financial infrastructure that powers travel innovation, we’re committed to enabling the next generation of travel experiences.
The European travel technology landscape stands at an inflection point—balancing rich history and tradition with transformative innovation and possibility. Through events like our Innovation Evening and ongoing industry engagement, we’re excited to play our part in bringing this future to life.
— Thanks to everyone who attended and supported our Innovation Evening, and see you at our next event!
About the Author — James Lemon joined Stripe as Global Lead for Hospitality, Travel & Leisure industry, leading business development, building multi-year plans and supporting delivery across Marketing, Sales, and targetted Product/Tech choices. James has worked in C-Suite Strategy, Innovation and Growth roles across the industry for 20+ years, from hotel chains (IHG) to TravelTech (TravelPort), and multiple startups - both as a Founder and as a COO. Connect with James on Travel Massive and LinkedIn.
📸 Thanks to Louis Julien for the event photography.
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Comments
James, thanks for sharing this fantastic update and photos from Stripe's Innovation Evening with London Travel Massive and The Entrepreneur Collective.
Congrats to "Hey Food is Ready" for winning the pitch competition — it's great to see an idea that bridges hospitality and international culture made possible through technology.
I agree this year feels like a wave of innovation in travel and entrepreneurs riding that wave. No business model is safe from disruption and the barriers to entry are much lower thanks to AI. However, ultimately imo it will be human connections that will make the difference, so in-person events and networks are more important than ever.
Thanks again for your support and bringing such a great group of people together!