Connecting travel providers such as Tour operators and Online Travel Agencies with hotel rooms for their clients can be challenging. Hiring staff to sign contracts with individual hotels can be expensive and time consuming. Intermediaries charge large commissions. Furthermore, hotels using intermediaries get very little control over which travel providers are booking their rooms and find it difficult to enforce their rate policies.
Roibos’ co-founders, Jaime Sastre and Patricia Rosello, had a solution. They designed the Roibos platform as a marketplace where travel providers can connect directly to hotels. Hotels can see exactly who is booking their rooms, and set and enforce individual rate policies for each travel provider. Both sides avoid large commissions to intermediaries which improves their profits.
With the VMS Fund, Roibos receives:
Roibos has a working product which has been used by customers for several months. The priority now is in growing the customer base and further developing the product to meet their needs.
You should start by emailing karl.schabas@vmsfund.com. Include a brief description of your idea and why you believe it meets the criteria of the fund. We will then arrange a follow-up call to discuss further. Keep in mind that all fund investments will require a business unit sponsor from within Constellation. If you already have a business unit leader that supports your application, be sure to include this in your email.
Any further questions, feel free to reach out to karl.schabas@vmsfund.com.