Event: 2019 Phocuswright Conference
Product: SnapTravel
Category: Emerging Company
HQ: Toronto, ON Canada
Principal(s): Hussein Fazal, CEO; Henry Shi, CTO
Funding: $16M+ including Steph Curry (NBA superstar) and Peter Kern (Chairman of the Board at Expedia)
Product Description: SnapTravel makes booking a hotel as simple as chatting with a trusted friend. Powered by NLP and ML technology, a customer can open their favorite messaging app (SMS, Messenger, WhatsApp), send a message and instantly get personalized hotel deals. A combination of automated agent, human agent and UI create a delightful and engaging experience.
Business Model: SnapTravel sells hotels directly to consumers and makes money on each and every booking.
Competitors: Mezi (acquired by AMEX)
Competitive Edge: Artificial intelligence technology that makes booking a hotel as simple as chatting with a friend. NLP and ML power a conversation with personalized recommendations, pricing and notifications.
Market Opportunity: Currently, SnapTravel only offers hotels. However, given how engaged customers are over messaging, there is a simple and logical extension into flights, tickets, tours and activities. SnapTravel will move towards being a full-service travel agency with a $1T+ market opportunity.
Early Customers: 4M+ customers have chatted with SnapTravel making 500K+ bookings at 50K+ different hotels across 150+ countries.
Contact: Hussein Fazal, CEO; partner@snaptravel.com
