About Us

WeTravel began in 2016, with our three co-founders — CEO Johannes Koeppel, CTO Garib Mehdiyev, and CMO Zaky Prabowo. Despite hailing from different corners of the globe (Switzerland, Azerbaijan, and Indonesia, respectively), they found that they shared passions for both technology and a local style of immersive travel.

The initial idea for the platform sparked during Koeppel’s time working for The Red Cross, encountering small communities around the world most accessible to visitors through locally-based travel businesses. He experienced how disjointed the booking and payment processes employed by these businesses were. Their payment systems were archaic, causing missed and delayed payments (often sent by check) to vendors, and their communication methods weren't ideal, often falling short of making itineraries and other logistics clear to their customers. He believed technology could better the system and help local businesses and communities increase revenue and drive traffic to their trips.

All-in-one platform for multi-day travel
More than 3,000 travel businesses and 500,000 travelers served globally
Hundreds of millions USD transacted annually
Diverse fintech solutions including payment processing, instant payout, Vendor Transfers, WeTravel Cards
Powerful SaaS solutions including trip builder, booking management & analytics dashboards, marketing & communications tools, Google Analytics & Zapier integrations, public APIs, and more
WeTravel Academy with more than 500 content pieces and an average 25,000 views per month
WeTravel Basic, Pro, and Enterprise subscription models fit for all business types

JOHANNES KOEPPEL

Co-founder and CEO

Johannes joined Doctors Without Borders and The Red Cross after university, visiting political prisoners in Uzbekistan, budgeting HIV projects in Swaziland and managing the Red Cross office in Tajikistan. During this time, he occasionally organized tours for Europeans and met with many tour organizers, who all agreed on a common pain-point: Booking trips and collecting payments was muddied and challenging. From there, the idea for WeTravel took shape. Packing his idea (and his luggage), Johannes received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue an MBA at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Heading to every competition and pitch event known to him, Johannes and fellow Berkeley classmate, Garib, launched WeTravel’s first prototype, and within a short time it was used to organize over $600,000 USD worth of trips for MBA students. It was then he knew the platform would make a difference in the travel industry.

GARIB MEHDIYEV

Co-founder and CTO

With an impressive fintech background, Garib’s passion for finance and technology has strung together his life’s experiences. Before founding WeTravel in 2016, Garib held roles as CTO of UniBank, Azerbaijan’s largest bank, Engineer at Fuze, and the Co-Founder of TFI Fellowships and MPS, which he officially exited. After being introduced at a startup pitch night at UC Berkeley, Garib and Johannes found common ground in creating a technology platform to address the unmet needs of multi-day travel businesses. From there, Johannes and Garib set-out to create the WeTravel platform, enlisting the help of fellow classmate, Zaky, to launch and market the business. Now, Garib leads WeTravel’s engineering team, relying on his software and DevOps engineering background to steer the company’s technical direction.

ZAKY PRABOWO

Co-founder and CMO

Zaky, born in Indonesia, spent time after university as an aide to Indonesia’s President, where he, too, saw the technical issues in booking and paying for international travel. He co-founded Indorelawan, the largest marketplace for volunteers and NGOs in Indonesia, and worked in Customer Acquisition at EatWith and McKinsey before heading to America for an MBA from U.C. Berkeley. As the final founder to join WeTravel, Zaky’s marketing experience made him the perfect fit for commercializing WeTravel’s business, launching it from its prototype for student group organizers into the multi-day travel industry. He now manages the company's growing marketing, sales, and customer support teams.

About WeTravel

Our mission is to empower any travel company to provide life-changing experiences

How it all started

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