Startups to pack in your suitcase this summer

In 2016, while on holiday in Puerto Rico, Sevillian entrepreneur Salvador Lora had to stay at a campsite due to the lack of hotel accommodation in the area. The decision allowed him to discover that these places can also have all kinds of facilities to make for a pleasant stay. His experience on the Caribbean island inspired him to launch his own startup, Kampaoh, which offers accommodation in pre-furnished tents. In January, it closed a 14 million euro investment round.

Holidays are not only a time when entrepreneurs like Lora take the opportunity to shape new projects, but also a time when many professionals simply decide to pack their bags and take a few days off, recharge their batteries, and take care of their mental well-being. To make the most of these days, in addition to Kampaoh, there are several solutions developed by high-growth companies for those who want to get away from their usual surroundings and explore new places, get closer to sustainable mobility, or enjoy a good book.

🔎 🗺️ ️The exploration begins!

“The need to move and discover is inherent to human beings,” says Clara Estrems, spokesperson for GuruWalk, a platform that brings together free tour guides from around the world. This startup, which is present in cities in 120 countries, offers travellers guided tours to discover the city they are visiting with expert guides, through a reverse ticketing system: users pay according to their experience. The free tours company is also an alternative to promote the so-called “proximity tourism”, destinations close to one’s usual place of residence, and to open up new job opportunities: “Our globality has also made it possible, for example, for women in many countries to earn a fair living from their work in places where it would be much more difficult,” says Estrems.

In addition to GuruWalk, there are other high-growth companies that are streamlining the search for holiday destinations to discover new frontiers. These include Colombia’s Escappy Travel, which offers surprise trips using a model similar to that developed by Waynabox, and Barcelona’s startup Exoticca, an online travel agency that offers package tours to more than 50 destinations around the world. Through this traveltech, users can prepare their next trip and benefit from different offers to visit destinations ideal for geek tourists, as well as other places where they can disconnect and enjoy their free time.

🏠 🧳 Accommodation that makes you feel at home

Once you have chosen your destination and planned the activities that will make your stay unforgettable, the next step is to find accommodation. In addition to the usual options such as Airbnb, or the aforementioned Kampaoh, there are other alternatives such as CircleHome, which proposes a different solution: home exchange.

The platform, which was launched in 2021, is aimed at an audience aged between 25 and 45, “an audience profile that wants to travel more often: maybe they don’t have the financial means to travel several times a year, but they do want to,” says David Liria, co-founder of CircleHome. The service gives users the tools they need to agree on the dates and type of exchanges they want to make: “Single Circle”, “Multiple Circle”, or “Non-Simultaneous Circle”. All of these options allow travellers to do so safely by including insurance of up to US$5 million (4.6 million euros at the exchange rate).

This section also includes other solutions to make your stay easier, such as LUGGit, a Portuguese company that offers a real-time luggage collection, storage, and delivery service.

🚲 🌳 Discover new places while respecting the environment

Discovering new destinations while respecting the environment is a growing trend. Mobility plays a fundamental role in this, even in summer. This philosophy is present in unicorn companies such as Cabify, which aims to reach 100% of trips in electric vehicles by 2025, to some more recent ones such as Kleta, which promotes the use of bicycles in urban environments and settles as an option for local travellers.

Present in more than ten cities through external collaborators and with shops in Barcelona and Valencia, this company offers a monthly subscription service that allows users to have a bike without having to buy one. For the startup, the summer months are an opportunity for “commuters to take advantage of the time they have to discover cycling as a primary mode of transport,” says Falk Siegel, founder of Kleta. “Many of our users are families, so the idea of a city like Valencia where you can take your child to the beach on a bike is a great idea.

Yego, a startup that has a fleet of electric scooters for hire and with a presence in some cities in Spain and France, is also developing a two-wheeled vehicle. Users will have to access a subscription service.

💳 Startups to cover holiday costs

In order to fulfil all those plans that are made during the holiday period, you can count on Payflow, which was present at the last edition of the BBVA Open Summit, which allows employees to get paid in advance. Similarly, Devengo offers a solution for employees to be paid automatically.

🔝 Other ways to enjoy your holidays

Startups such as Bookish, which offers a literary subscription service for those who want to enjoy reading over the holidays, also help to disconnect during the holidays. However, for those who prefer to listen rather than read, there are audiobooks and podcasts from Storytel or Podimo.

In addition, another startup that travellers can pack in their suitcases is Freshly Cosmetics, which offers sun creams for travellers who decide to relax on the beach.

In short, as Clara Estrems of GuruWalk says, “for travellers, discovering a place and its culture makes them travel with a more open mind”. And whether on the beach, in the mountains, or in the city, taking a break is always necessary in order to face new challenges with maximum energy or even to design projects that could become a high-growth business in the future.