Travel startup NAVA wins Travel Technology Europe Disrupt Award 2019
by Startacus Admin
London-based disruptive tourism and travel startup NAVA, the innovative recommendation service that matches people to venues around them using artificial intelligence, has been named the winner of the 2019 Travel Technology Europe Disrupt Award.
After a rigorous application process, 10 companies were shortlisted, and asked to present their innovation to the Travel Technology Europe public, where 5 businesses would go on to be selected as finalists to pitch.
Following this, Tom Charman, CEO, gave an impassioned ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch in which he described the vision of NAVA as revolutionising the way in which companies
interact with customers to five travel experts and a crowd of industry onlookers. Creating immersive city experiences across Europe, NAVA aims to help locals and travellers alike ‘unlock’ cities, while helping travel companies and
venues understand how people interact with their surroundings. Upon winning the award, Tom Charman said: “I’m very happy to have won. I come to this conference every year, as it’s one of the best in Europe, but it’s always been difficult to commit to exhibiting - something I’m not going to have to worry about next year now. I really enjoyed the whole process, even the pitching - I’m used to speaking to panels of investors so it was nice to have a welcoming audience!”
One of the travel experts, Lee Hayhurst, head of news at the Travel Weekly Group went on to explain the reasons behind the win and said:
“We are always looking for something that opens our eyes and something that demonstrates a completely new way of doing things. We wanted to be inspired by new ideas and NAVA’s unique concept certainly ticked that box”.
This win comes after NAVA (formally KOMPAS) was recently recognised as one of the worlds most disruptive tourism startups by the UNWTO, recently competing out at FITUR in Madrid for the top spot, after being selected as one of the 10 world finalists from over 3,000 applicants spanning 132 countries.
Winning the Disrupt Award has given NAVA a full-sized stand at the 2020 event worth £8,000, plus marketing and PR support.
Other finalists that competed for the prize included Grapevine, Hopper Video, Panzly and TripX, chosen via an online public vote lasting three weeks. As well as Lee Hayhurst, other travel experts on the judging panel included Walter Toscano, Senior Advisor for Travel & Telecom Ltd, Renee Tsielepi, Agile Trainer & Coach at Transcendence, Rob Colledge, Marketing and Communications Manager for Online Travel at Amadeus and Alice Ferrari, Strategic Partnerships Lead in Travel at Founders Factory.
Congrats to NAVA and we look forward to continuing to follow their journey...
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Published on: 22nd February 2019
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