Kochi: iTraveller, a Startup Village incubated company, has been selected as one among the 30 global innovators for the year at the prestigious Travel Innovation Summit (TIS) in Los Angeles, bringing yet another laurel to India's first PPP technology business incubator.
iTraveller will be showcased at the event to be held during November 11-13. The selected global innovators will demonstrate applications, technologies and solutions with the potential to transform the way travel business is conducted.
"I owe my success largely to Startup Village which has been a great enabler," said Shiju Radhakrishnan, CEO of iTraveller, who cofounded the company with Chitra Parija, Nisanth Kumar and Sanjay Kumar.
iTraveller is a cloud-based supply chain automation platform for holiday planning. Its seamless integration of end-to-end processes is designed to automate the manual tasks involved in vacation planning businesses. Travellers get to plan their customised holidays, whereas the fulfilment of the services from suppliers, who are also fully automated on iTraveller, ensures quality end-user experiences.
iTraveller helps automate the process of holiday planning and booking by bundling various components (hotels + transportation + sightseeing + activities), allowing the end users to do the same online, without extensive manual support. It also empowers them to get the best prices due to the effect of bundling.
"The USP of iTraveller lies in capturing all these variables in a seamless manner with the help of technology, thereby automating and organising the vacation planning processes," added Shiju. The system's dynamic inventory management helps integrate all the stakeholders in the supply chain – travellers, travel agents, tour operators and hotels.
"It is a great honour for both iTraveller and Startup Village. I hope this will help in creating a richer ecosystem of technology-driven and automation-enabled travel fraternity," said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman, Startup Village.
Launched in September 2011, iTraveller had won the most promising start-up award. iTraveller was shortlisted after three rounds of interviews. Its business model was first evaluated by PhoCusWright in Singapore, followed by a jury in the US.
TIS is considered to be 'the travel event of the year' by all the stakeholders in the hospitality industry, such as travel companies, investors, research firms and even media.