WETRAVEL NEWSROOM

FinTech and SaaS platform built for the multi-day travel industry.

The WE in WeTravel

  • Privately held, Seed Round funding
  • 65 global employees, doubling in 2022
  • Employees work from five continents, excluding Australia and Antarctica
  • Headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and California, The United States
  • Product and DevOps office in Baku, Azerbaijan
  • Nearly 50 percent of employees identify as women
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Why WE do

The leading vertical SaaS for the $500 billion multi-day travel industry; an all-in-one FinTech and SaaS platform built to manage the bookings and payments, so travel businesses can focus on creating trips.

WeTravel is the only integrated-payment platform built for multi-day travel companies that helps travel businesses, of all sizes, transition from traditional, disjointed booking and payment methods to an all-in-one, simplified platform.

Why WE started

Empower small businesses to grow through technology.

WeTravel began in 2016, with three Co-Founders—Johannes Koeppel (CEO), Garib Mehdiyvev (CTO) and Zaky Prabowo (CMO)—who had a similar passion for a local style of immersive travel, hailing from Switzerland, Azerbaijan and Indonesia respectively, and a fascination with technology.

The initial idea for the platform sparked from Koeppel’s time working for The Red Cross—with small communities and local travel businesses around the world—he experienced how disjointed the booking and payment process was for multi-day travel businesses; the payment system was archaic, causing missed and delayed payments (often sent by cheque) to vendors and confusing itineraries for customers. He believed technology could better the system and help local businesses and communities increase revenue and drive traffic to their trips.

In 2014, WeTravel's MVP was launched for student group travel organizers. In its prototype, the platform processed more than $600k USD in transactions. Noting the platform's demand within the student travel segment of the multi-day travel industry, the business expanded its offerings in the wellness segment. Finding similar success, WeTravel expanded into all segments within the multi-day travel industry, evolving its product to be built as a vertical SaaS for the multi-day travel industry.

Where WE are now

Empower all multi-day travel businesses to streamline booking and payments.

  • All-in-one platform for multi-day travel
  • 1,100 travel companies, 3,000 trip organizers, and more than 350,000 travelers globally
  • Hundreds of millions USD in annual transactions
  • Fintech solutions - payment processing, instant payout, Vendor Transfers, WeTravel Cards
  • SaaS solutions: Trip Builder, booking management,, Google Analytics integration, API integration, marketing and email assets
  • Free subscription for non-profit businesses and student group travel
  • WeTravel Academy for travel businesses, launched in December 2021. More than 500 content pieces on 12 topics. Average 25,000 views per month, with thousands of downloads from tour operators, travel advisors, and travel businesses
  • WeTravel Basic, Pro and Enterprise subscription models fit for all business types
HubSpot Video

Why WE do it

WeTravel makes the booking process--from itinerary building to trip management--accessible and easy for all travel businesses. Its evolving FinTech solutions include instant payment, vendor transfers and WeTravel Cards, at the industry's lowest processing fees.

For the multi-day travel industry—which is often made up of small- to medium-sized businesses that lack proper technology—the platform creates opportunities to increase revenue and customer satisfaction (recurring revenue potential), allowing for all businesses to easily transact with travelers, vendors and suppliers.

Although used by all business sizes, WeTravel began and continues with a heart for helping increase revenue for local business owners—so that money can be funneled back into communities, businesses and people, becoming a solution that has economic and social impact.

Who WE are

Johannes
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 sparked for WeTravel. Packing his idea (and his luggage), Johannes received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue U.C. Berkeley’s MBA. 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.
Careers Page - Team Photos
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. Getting introduced through a startup pitch night at UC Berkeley, Garib and Johannes found commonality in creating a technology platform that had an unparalleled ability to help multi-day travel businesses succeed. From there, Johannes and Garib set-out to create WeTravel’s 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
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 WeTravel’s business, launching it from its prototype for student group organizers into the multi-day travel industry. He now manages growing marketing, sales, and customer support.

As seen in the news 

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WE are here for YOU

Contact Us

For all press inquiries, email press@wetravel.com to speak with Kasi McGurk, WeTravel’s Global PR Manager. She aims to respond within two business days.

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