HBX Group, a leading B2B ecosystem in the TravelTech space, and Wayra, Telefónica’s Corporate Venture Capital, today announced the winners of the second TravelTech Lab by HBX Group challenge after analysing 120 companies from 25 countries including Spain, France, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Korea.

Only 6 start-ups were given the opportunity to present their project to a professional jury composed of experts from both companies at the pitching hub during 4FYN, part of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The goal of the challenge was to find start-ups that specialise in virtual reality, the metaverse and AI to help B2B travel companies improve efficiency in their operations. After hearing the proposals, four winners have been announced to join the TravelTech Lab, for their solutions that create more engaging experiences and reshape distribution within the TravelTech industry.

The winning start-ups are:

• Didit(Gamium): an intuitive app that combines NFC, blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies to ensure secure identity verifications and smart digital payments.
• Firstview: provides hotels with virtual reality and immersive digital content with 3D virtual tours, 360° aerial view, virtual sales platform, and reporting.
• Hotelverse: offers travellers the opportunity to fly over the hotel, explore its facilities, hyper-personalise a specific room and book it.
• Unblock: an application that serves as a point of contact with the citizen and offers comprehensive access to city services in an easy and attractive way.

These startups will receive advice and guidance from industry experts, and they will also join Wayra’s innovative ecosystem and work directly with HBX Group teams to develop joint business opportunities. In addition, HBX Group may offer a grant of up to €40,000 to pilot and bring their proposal to life.

All four of the selected start-ups will be able to work with other like-minded entrepreneurs in Wayra’s 7 spaces in Europe and Latin America, as well as in HBX Group’s hubs in Mallorca and Madrid.

“Our alliance with HBX Group is an exciting adventure, we want to create innovative solutions through the most disruptive technologies that redefine the hotel and tourism sector. What better way to do it than by relying on the entrepreneurial ecosystem that we have been supporting for more than 15 years? Wayra would like to congratulate all the winners, as together we will seek to create a real impact on their business, and successfully face the new challenges of the market”, explains Andrés Saborido, COO of Wayra.

José María Pestaña, Chief Innovation & Public Affairs Officer at HBX Group, stated: “Innovation is the cornerstone of our TravelTech Lab at HBX Group, and the collaboration with Wayra is key in connecting with start-ups that offer a differential value proposition. We are very pleased with the outcome of the second challenge and would like to congratulate all the selected start-ups. We firmly believe that the winning proposals can contribute to improving the efficiency of our partners. We are confident that together we can continue to facilitate the real transformation of the TravelTech space and improve the traveller experience.”