STARTUP STAGE: Orbzii wants to make travel planning easier

Orbzii

App-based Orbzii brings together flights and hotels and employs artificial intelligence to enable consumers to filter options and put together a trip as well as discuss it and share it with others. 

The company, which acquired itinerary planning service Pluto last year, aims to simplify travel planning by consolidating information and inventory in one place.

What is your 30-second pitch to investors? 

We want to solve the issue of customers visiting 21 different websites before booking travel and instead use Orbzii to dream, plan and book all in one place. Like a friend, Orbzii gets what you like and dislike and serves you up recommendations to find your perfect holiday match, accessing 350,000 hotels and every major airline to dynamically package the best holidays all in one place. Our platform allows customers to share suggested trips and chat about their proposed trips within the app.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup. 

We are an independent tour operator offering ATOL and IATA protection, with a customer happiness team using a full tech stack to secure the best prices and a trust to protect customers' money, with travel insurance and ticketing all in one place. 

The technology has been built in React Native on a PHP Laravel with MongoDB using APIs to search only real flights and hotel availability, supported by Expedia and Amadeus. Our AI and advanced filtering allows the user to become their own travel agent and dynamically package benefiting from discounted rates on IT fares and package path hotels. In addition, our CMS is bespoke to allow for our team to track a customer’s issues and resolve them at every step. 

Stripe payment and trust means we have 3DS and flexibility in payment plus low deposits of £75. 

We have built swipe technology to build a profile algorithm of each customer, in order to give weight toward a destination preference, this allows them to enjoy a personalized journey with content and hotels and flights.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

• Strengths - small, nimble, secure and able to open up worldwide in iOS and Android app stores. The format of our app bringing together all elements of the booking process from ideation to booking is entirely unique to travel. The app allows users to blend charter flights and 350,000 hotels all with low deposits.
• Weaknesses – cost of acquisition and retention challenges of a startup, and trust while we become more established. 
• Opportunities – apps are capable of exponential viral followers with PR and media initiatives plus current legacy systems and people looking for new ways to travel. Consumers who are time starved seeking an inspiring solution to make travel simple.
• Threats – not yet stand-alone so reliant on third-party providers.

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective? 

Search, dream, plan with friends and do this all in a secure environment with a travel wallet offering one click checkout and instant ticketing for organization. Save time with all the info in one place.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers? 

Cost per download under £1, social, sharing and Google to target travel enthusiasts who need help. We're also working hard to ensure we build both a social and media presence and launched a TV advertising campaign in late December. 

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market. 

Focus groups to establish a gap in technology between Instagram and Booking.com where people feel understood and their dreams are turned into reality in a series of elegant swipes.

How and when will you make money? 

We’re already making money, projected £1m TTV by end of the first quarter.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founder? 

Through a 25-year career in hospitality, Scott Le Roi identified his love for helping people and finding the best parts of travel.

Extensive travel to friends in holiday destinations provided richer experiences from having the insider tips and tricks for the best places to see, the best views and to see a place through a local's eyes.

In 2015, Scott set up a luxury travel concierge handling celebrities and realized that there are three types of travelers: dreamers who want to go anywhere, anytime, anyplace; planners who need help to go where they want to go; and bookers who know exactly where they want to go.

Constantly frustrated by technology shortcomings and believing in the human connection, he set out to build an app that blended 350,000 hotels, all major flights and the best places, but with a human happiness team to support and offer that insider experience.

With AI and augmented reality available, Scott has built Orbzii to learn and put the traveler in charge of their own happiness, with a team to support if anything goes wrong.

Swipe more and we tailor what you see. Plan and share your best itinerary. Eradicate all that panic of planning and booking a trip.

Need advice, WhatsApp the team, DM us on Instagram. Orbzii is your travel attaché and will always be there to solve travel issues.

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business so far? 

Orbzii firmly believes that if someone can do the job, then nothing else matters. We proudly promote all people without discrimination. This is part of our Joined Up World which represents the core values of our business, now and forever.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far? 

Developing technology from scratch and trying to modernize travel technology

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones? 

We want to blend technology with people, trust and loyalty will follow

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in? 

We will be scaling to disrupt the United States market and be solidified in the United Kingdom as a trusted alternative to the large U.S. and Dutch brands that dominate without service in our opinion.

What is your endgame? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.) 

Staying private with unicorn dreams.