Spotnana’s 2023 Year in Review

2023 has been a pivotal year for Spotnana. We’ve come so far in such a short period of time that when I look back, it feels like several years of innovation were compressed into one. 

Here’s a summary of our major highlights from the year.

Bringing modern infrastructure to the travel industry 

In March, Brex announced Brex Travel, powered by Spotnana’s technology stack. This was the first example of a technology company white labeling Spotnana and deeply integrating our Travel-as-a-Service platform with their products. Later in the year, Center also announced it had integrated Spotnana with their expense management platform. 

Technology companies weren’t the only ones to announce channel partnerships with Spotnana. Multiple TMCs announced partnerships with us including CWT, Solutions Travel, and Ticketpro Travel Solutions. 

Qantas became the first airline to use a white labeled version of our platform to power travel for their business rewards customers, and Train Hugger was the first channel partner to offer a white labeled version of our technology to enable corporations to book trips via UK rail.

NDC was a big trend this year. We’re proud to have delivered on the promise of modern retailing and support for end-to-end traveler journeys from booking through to servicing. When American Airlines removed over 40% of its content from EDIFACT-based distribution channels in early April, we were one of the few travel companies ready with a direct NDC integration. 

We also announced a direct NDC integration with United Airlines that includes support for continuous pricing, self-service exchanges, and synchronized servicing across TMC and airline agents. Next, we built direct NDC integrations with Lufthansa Group airlines including Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and SWISS that includes support for Green Fares. 

We also demonstrated that our Content Engine can handle any API by announcing a direct integration to Southwest Airlines that includes the ability to purchase EarlyBird Check-In and make same-day exchanges on a self-service basis, even after check-in. 

Beyond airlines, we announced integrations with the latest Amtrak and Trainline APIs for rail in the U.S., Canada, UK, and European Union.

Recognition for driving transformative change

As we focused on launching new customers and partnerships this year, we were honored and humbled to receive several industry awards and moments of recognition. 

The Beat awarded Spotnana the Reader’s Choice award for Most Admired Technology Company, reflecting the progress we’ve made building out our Travel-as-a-Service platform as recognized by the industry leaders that subscribe to The Beat.

Spotnana Founder and CEO Sarosh Waghmar (right) and Co-Founder and CTO Shikhar Agarwal accept The Beat Live Reader’s Choice Award.

In addition, Spotnana CEO Sarosh Waghmar was named for the first time to Business Travel News’ 25 Most Influential People of the year with kind words from Jay Boehmer, editor of The Beat:

“It’s difficult to recall startup companies that had as much effect in the corporate travel industry in such a time as Spotnana, the technology company that, just a little more than two short years since its founding, has landed high-profile partnerships, developed solutions and formed the tech backbone for other new entrants …. The moves [Spotnana] has made in 2023, under the leadership of founder and CEO Sarosh Waghmar, further has cemented its industry position.”
– Jay Boehmer, The Beat

Spotnana was also recognized on Business Travel Magazine’s 2023 Tech Hot List, named a top 100 startup by FutureTravel, and received the 2023 award for ESG Leadership from the Focus Travel Partnership.

At the beginning of the year, we also received several awards that reflect the strength of our working environment. We were included on the Inc Best Workplaces list, on the Forbes list of America’s Best Startup Employers, and were named a Built In 2023 Best Place to Work.

Driving travel innovation at an unprecedented pace

All of this was only possible because of the incredible work delivered by our product, design, and engineering teams. 

Thanks to their dedication and the flexibility of our modern, microservices-based architecture, we were able to add hundreds of new features to our Travel-as-a-Service platform this year. This transformed us into a company ready to handle the demands of the world’s largest enterprises with the most complex global needs.

Here are just a few of the many innovations we released to make life easier for travelers, travel managers, travel agents, and administrators in addition to the airline and rail integrations mentioned above:

Self-service changes and cancellations

We made significant progress towards our goal of automating all workflows for exchanges and cancellations across all of the forms of travel we support. This is a particular challenge for flights where we expanded the ability to make self-service changes and cancellations for EDIFACT, NDC, and Travelfusion bookings, including support for complex scenarios like partially-flown trips and when travelers are waitlisted for an upgrade. 

Unused ticket management

We announced the ability to redeem unused ticket credits on a self-service basis for both EDIFACT and NDC fares, and we were the first to announce support for redeeming an unused EDIFACT credit toward the purchase of an NDC fare on American Airlines, just a few weeks after they made this capability available. In general, it’s our goal to stay at the forefront of innovation with direct integrations to leading travel suppliers, OTAs, and aggregators.

Policy management

We added a tremendous amount of functionality and flexibility to our self-service policy management capabilities this year. Admins gained an expanded ability to manage dynamic policies that include configurable settings for defining a lowest logical fare. We also added the ability to show fares but not allow them to be booked, delivered hard and soft approvals for each travel modality, and expanded options for creating policy groups.

Supplier management

On the supplier front, we created an array of controls for managing which suppliers are preferred and which are restricted, with granular controls configurable by legal entity.

Spotnana Seat 1A

We announced a new service for VIP travelers, which offers personalized VIP travel booking, proactive trip management, and premium traveler experiences.

Spotnana Carbon Removal

We established a partnership to provide companies with a fast, exact, and permanent way to remove carbon from the atmosphere in order to achieve their goals for sustainable travel at an affordable price.

Expanded rail shopping experience

With our direct Amtrak and Trainline integrations, we delivered an expanded set of rail functionality including the ability to apply multiple rail cards, reserve seats, purchase comfort options, and benefit from industry-leading support for split-ticket. Travelers are now also able to see rail options, where applicable, when searching for flights in order to encourage greener travel choices.

Global shopping experience

We also made significant progress expanding our capabilities for international travel including expanded support for local content, local languages, local currencies, and invoices that support local tax requirements.

International SOS integration

Spotnana became the first company to provide International SOS with comprehensive safety and security data for both EDIFACT- and NDC-based bookings.

Agent Desktop

Agent productivity is a significant focus for us, since we provide infrastructure for TMCs as well as manage servicing for our direct customers and several channel partners. This year added capabilities for agents to view details on traveler preferences, policies, and trips at a glance as well as significantly expanded the range of tasks agents can perform to deliver a best-in-class traveler experience.

Company growth

To support our rapidly expanding employee base, we moved into larger offices for our New York City headquarters as well as our Palo Alto and Bangalore locations. We have continued to expand in other locations including London, Mumbai, and Pune. 

The Spotnana offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Going into 2024, we’re well-positioned to continue innovating at a blistering pace and bring next-generation travel experiences to our growing ecosystem of customers and partners.

To learn more about how Spotnana can transform your business, reach out and ask for a demo today.

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