Investment fund Transavia Ventures has existed for 5 years

Transavia Ventures focuses on three important themes:

• reducing noise in aviation
• developing new sustainable fuels (SAF)
• operational use of Zero Emission aircraft such as electric and/or hydrogen aircraft

There were several reasons for Transavia to establish Transavia Ventures in April 2019. For example, startups often develop promising innovations based on new technology and these new companies have an enormous drive to take their ideas further.

However, there is often a lack of funding to develop a prototype from the idea phase. Furthermore, it usually takes a long time to try out an innovation in practice, also because there is often a lack of sufficient marketing power and brand awareness to grow further. Transavia Ventures offers a solution for all these challenges.

Nico Gielen, Investment lead New Business Transavia Ventures: “At Transavia the focus is on the now and on the future: in addition to purchasing a new, cleaner and quieter fleet, we are now actively investing in future technologies and innovations. Our goal? Net zero flying by 2050.”

How does it work

Startups are invited to present their ideas at Transavia. If Transavia manages to convince Transavia of the usefulness and necessity of the innovation, so-called 'early phase financing' will be provided. With that money, the startup can further develop the idea and develop a prototype. Or if there is already a prototype, Transavia can help integrate it within its own operation or with a partner in the travel industry. Transavia also helps to gain awareness of the solution.

Transavia Ventures currently invests in three Dutch startups:

• MuTech , a spin-off from TuDelft that develops advanced technology that reduces noise. These techniques are now applied to wind turbines because they have fewer requirements regarding certification. Through the collaboration with Transavia, we are investigating how this technology can be used more quickly for quieter aviation.
• FlyWithLucy , they develop the Regional Air Mobility concept. An application that allows business travelers to fly between smaller regional airports with small zero-emission aircraft, as soon as they become available.
• E-Flight Group , they already offer zero-emission flight training with small electric training aircraft from Airport Teuge. And they are also working to make other regional airports suitable for electric flying.

Transavia Ventures was also the basis of four now successful startups

• Traveldiaries , a platform for creating and sharing online travel diaries for Web, iOS or Android. Creators of the travel diaries can produce authentic content that can also be used by travel organizations if desired. At the end of last year, Traveldiaries raised an investment of more than one million euros from an external investor. The platform is now being scaled up worldwide. The ambition is to become the number one travel diary platform in the world.
• GoHere , a mobile app developer. The app makes it possible to share tips about destinations, restaurants and activities between friends. Transavia uses the app itself to give passengers tips about their destination. Because it is a so-called white label app, the costs are substantially lower than for a completely own app. This makes the GoHere apps also available to travel influencers. Many influencers have their own GoHere app with which they give tips to their followers.
• Airtrotter , a software developer who has created a platform that allows travel organizations to put together and book a complete travel program very easily but above all very quickly. Including flights, train travel, accommodations, car rental and activities. Several Dutch travel organizations now use the Airtrotter B2B software. Together with Transavia, a new option has been developed for putting together more sustainable travel packages that do not cost more than traditional travel packages.
• Secret City Trails , a provider of interactive city walks. Walkers discover a new city or get to know a city better via a web application. Through clues and solving riddles, users discover all kinds of surprising places and other unique details in the city. Obviously a wonderful application for the many Transavia city trippers.

Booster

In the coming years, Transavia Ventures wants to continue to play the role of driving new innovations to make aviation cleaner and quieter. If you would like more information or get in touch with one of the startups, please contact [email protected] .