The pandemic has ravaged the travel industry; with travel decimated globally overnight. Full recovery is estimated to span several years. The industry’s ability to successfully recover will be rooted in the industry’s ability to adapt to new circumstances and adopt new technologies. Reposite, is an all-in-one-workspace tool for travel industry professionals, that’s hoping to accelerate the rebound. At its core, it’s a collaboration tool and marketplace that connects travel agents and event planners to suppliers and centralizes all their interactions from discovery to transactions. The size of the travel agent industry is hundred of billions of dollars in the US alone yet there is still a heavy reliance on non-scalable activity with limited technology.
AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder Jaime Getto to learn more about how the founding team’s experience at Vettery led to the formation of Reposite, the company’s experience helping a segment reliant on offline interactions transition into digital, and the company’s latest funding round, which brings the total funding raised to $6M.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
$2.5M seed round led by Liberty City Ventures.
Tell us about the product or service that Reposite offers.
Reposite is the all-in-one workspace built for the travel industry. The platform works as a database that allows travel agents to manage suppliers and clients, track proposals, and better manage their business. Key features include a searchable database of suppliers, tracking of key documents, renewals, payment processing, and custom quotes via in-app messaging. Reposite will be releasing a new Discovery feature this month allowing travel agents and suppliers alike to search for and form new partnerships, ultimately leading to additional business opportunities.
What inspired the start of Reposite?
Our team previously built Vettery, a tech-enabled talent marketplace, together for 5 years, before it was acquired by Adecco in 2018 for over $100M. Our current leadership team collectively headed the operations, marketing, sales, and technology teams at Vettery, and following its acquisition, left to launch a sightseeing tour company, Nowaday. Our experience in the travel industry helped us identify a huge technology gap for the $352bn travel agent industry. We were able to see first hand that travel agents are limited to antiquated tools, and are left running their businesses mostly offline, with little ability to scale and grow efficiently. When the pandemic hit, we leaned on both our industry experience from Nowaday and tech background from Vettery, and had our team go heads down to develop a solution to position the industry for a better recovery.
How is Reposite different?
For starters, access to Reposite’s basic workspace is completely free and custom-designed for the industry, so travel agents can easily store and filter through all of their client and supplier information. When a travel agent imports his or her database into Reposite, they are also inviting each supplier to join and create a Reposite supplier profile. Our “managed supplier profiles” allow suppliers to make updates (i.e. add new photos, agreements, new offerings, updated points of contact, etc.), and that information gets synced automatically to the travel agent’s database so that they can communicate effectively and send payments to the right place.
Reposite also stands apart because it also functions as a discovery tool to develop new relationships with suppliers. It’s more important now than ever for travel professionals and suppliers to have an efficient solution for connecting and partnering together. Historically, the travel agent industry has relied on time-consuming, expensive trade shows to discover new suppliers. The pandemic has canceled these large events, leaving agents with no way to connect with their partners and find new ones. We’ve created a cost-effective solution to make those new connections instantly, as needed.
What market does Reposite target and how big is it?
Reposite is bringing the fully offline travel agency industry online – travel and event resellers typically operated out of binders, filing cabinets, and paper checks before they had access to our out-of-the-box tool.
Yes – a $352B industry in the US is managing their transactions with actual paper checks and binders.
What’s your business model?
It is free for users to create their Reposite account and utilize its core feature set. For users that choose to process payments through Reposite, there will be a transaction fee, and we are introducing a paid subscription this month for users who want to discover new partners through the platform.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
As hospitality veterans, our team saw an industry devastated by the pandemic and quickly identified an opportunity to provide stability and growth for travel agents and suppliers.
What was the funding process like? What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital? What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
It was critical for us to find a partner that understands our product, believes in our team and vision, and has conviction that the travel industry will come back stronger than ever. We are thrilled to have found that partner and be supported by Liberty City Ventures.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Grow our overall user base, increase platform engagement, and revenue.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Ensure that you have the right team in place – a group that believes in what you’re building and can achieve the important balance of continuing to improve the product and grow your user base.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We will be alongside our growing user base to provide stability and growth as the travel industry sees a massive recovery in 2021.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Miss Ada in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
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