Startups shaking up Australia's Corporate Travel Tech

Corporate travel has always been ripe for disruption, but the latest wave of innovation isn't all coming from the established players. A new cohort of startups, blending fintech, AI, and customer-centric design, is directly targeting the long-standing headaches faced by business travellers and travel managers alike. 

Australia has become a hotbed for these new ideas, with both local innovators and international players testing models specifically designed for the post-pandemic corporate world.

So, what are these companies doing, and why should corporate travel professionals pay attention?

FACTS Corporate Travel Tech Start-up Tracker

Redefining Stay and Pay

The pressure points of travel often start with logistics and cash flow. Sydney-based TimeFlyz is tackling the frustrating inefficiency of half-empty hotel rooms during the day. Launched in the early 2020s, this startup allows travellers to book rooms by the hour — in blocks of three, six, or 12 — via its app and website. For the "road warrior", this is invaluable, offering a quiet space for confidential calls, a spot to rest during a long layover, or a private city base without the cost of a full night. The innovation lies in repurposing wasted hotel inventory into usable micro-stays, offering potential savings and comfort that traditional bookings rarely provide.

Addressing another financial hurdle is Slice Group's PayLater Travel, founded in 2017. This fintech solution brings the "buy now, pay later" model to corporate travel, allowing travellers to book flights and hotels now and pay in installments. While large corporates may have established accounts or credit lines, this offering is highly relevant for SMEs and startups where cash flow is critical. Spreading out travel costs can ease pressure on budgets, ensuring essential trips still go ahead and potentially driving higher conversion for TMCs who embed the product.

The AI-Powered Travel Assistant Era

The newest wave of disruption is centred on applying conversational and generative AI directly to the traveller experience and booking process.

Altitude AI bills itself as the "first truly AI-native corporate travel platform". It automates the booking and management of work trips, handling itinerary planning, policy compliance, and supplier negotiations using artificial intelligence. Positioning itself directly against traditional TMCs, Altitude targets mid-market firms and SMEs, offering a self-service tool that blends cost control with employee empowerment. Its innovation is applying conversational AI to the pain points of travel admin, letting users interact with the system much as they would with a human assistant, a potential solution for the persistent problem of off-platform leakage.

A different kind of AI-driven assistant is Trippr Travel. This Sydney-based platform integrates booking partners with personalised discovery and planning tools. What differentiates Trippr from consumer portals is its ability to learn from traveller preferences  and corporate policy compliance. According to its founders, this approach streamlines decision-making for corporate bookers, saving time and reducing cost through smart recommendations, while also creating long-term value through loyalty and engagement tools.

New entrant Pioneera is tackling one of the most stubborn problems in corporate travel: traveller behaviour and compliance. The US company, which is attracting attention in Australia, offers a tool powered by AI and behavioural insights to drive smarter travel decisions.

The key innovation is the use of Generative AI Agents that become an extension of the corporate travel team. These agents proactively monitor and send nudges to employees to influence behaviour before the trip takes place. This approach helps corporate travel functions achieve strategic objectives like compliance, cost control, sustainability goals, and employee engagement. 

Even content creation is being democratised. JourneyMaker uses its AI-powered platform to generate itineraries and destination content. While not a replacement for traditional booking tools, its applications are interesting: hotels serving business guests could use it to deliver on-brand local guides or conference-focused itineraries, and event organisers might adapt it for guest engagement. The real innovation lies in allowing non-technical staff to generate professional, consistent travel material in seconds.

Built for Tomorrow's Enterprise

True efficiency often lies in fixing the complex, messy systems that operate behind the scenes. Australian-born Xaana, founded in 2019, has quickly embedded itself in the ecosystem through partnerships with major platforms like Amadeus and SAP Concur. This AI company focuses on using its technology to ensure booking and expense systems actually communicate seamlessly, automating data flows that are traditionally manual and error-prone. For corporates, this translates directly to faster reconciliation, better policy compliance, and fewer headaches for both finance teams and travellers. Xaana markets itself as an "enterprise-grade" AI provider, meaning its innovation is a highly practical one: cleaning up the back-end "plumbing" between disparate systems, making it immediately relevant to the enterprise market.

Similarly focused on system optimisation is aeroLABS, although its relevance is more indirect. Headquartered in Singapore, this company's core product, Frame (a Customer Data Platform), builds a "Golden Traveller Profile" by focusing on clean, complete passenger data. By helping suppliers personalise offers, recognise frequent flyers across systems, and streamline communications, aeroLABS enhances the experience of business travellers, especially those tied to loyalty programs — even if the corporate entity isn't a direct buyer.

Finally, some startups are aiming to be the next-generation foundational platform. CBT Suite, launched by India’s Techspian in 2025, is one such offering. It is designed as a full-featured corporate travel management platform, combining booking, expense, policy, and automation into a single system. Its key innovation is being “AI native” from day one, building automation into every workflow rather than bolting it on later. This allows CBT Suite to promise efficiencies in approvals, policy compliance, and cost optimisation, making it a fresh, AI-driven competitor to established TMC platforms.

A Fragmented but Fertile Market: The Future is Personalised

Taken together, these startups show just how diverse innovation in corporate travel has become. Some go straight for the enterprise pain points of reconciliation and management, while others chip away at the edges with clever models that reduce waste or smooth cash flow.

And it’s clear these offerings are just the beginning of a new AI-driven corporate travel future.

Pioneera Co-Founder and CEO Karen Hutchings believes it’s a slow start: "AI has been talked about for some time; however, the adoption is still limited, and our view is that this is something that will change the type of tech being used to deliver business travel solutions across the entire ecosystem." The true value, she suggests, will come when AI moves from a bolt-on feature to the core technology powering every element of the travel stack, from compliance nudges to booking interfaces.

Jamie Harbison, Founder and CEO of Trippr Travel, predicts that the next wave will be defined by multi-agent systems: specialised AI agents collaborating to automatically manage trip planning, disruption recovery, and supplier negotiations. He also predicts the rise of "personalisation at scale: securely linking traveller identity, preferences, and loyalty across the travel ecosystem to unlock new commercial opportunities for both corporates and suppliers".

Echoing this focus on data-driven intelligence, Altitude AI Founder and CEO Aimee Armstrong notes that the travel industry has an unbelievable amount of data that has been underutilised for a long time. "Building our platform in the AI era has allowed us to experiment with a wealth of data and push boundaries to redefine and shape the corporate travel experience," she says.

For travel managers and corporate buyers, the takeaway is clear: innovation isn't only coming from the top end of town. Startups are rethinking the travel experience in ways that could make a tangible difference to both travellers and the companies that send them on the road.

AI: A Double-Edged Sword

Despite the undeniable efficiencies, the integration of AI into the corporate travel ecosystem introduces potential risks that Australian businesses must address. The primary concern revolves around data security and privacy, as AI platforms, which thrive on sensitive traveller itineraries, payment details, and location data, dramatically expand the attack surface, potentially exposing companies to large-scale data breaches or non-compliance with local regulations.

Furthermore, the reliance on proprietary "black box" algorithms raises concerns about  "algorithmic bias”, which can perpetuate discrimination in booking recommendations or risk profiling if the training data is skewed. 

Finally, the move towards automation presents a profound workforce challenge, threatening job displacement in routine administrative roles within travel management companies and corporate travel departments, necessitating immediate focus on reskilling and establishing clear ethical governance frameworks to maintain human oversight and trust.

While the efficiency and personalisation offered by AI are transformative, Australian organisations must view these technologies not as silver bullets, but as complex instruments requiring robust ethical frameworks and governance. The next phase of AI adoption will be defined not by its speed, but by the rigour with which these critical risks are mitigated.

AI and the changing corporate travel ecosystem will be a core focus of the upcoming FACTS festival, Australia’s biggest annual gathering of corporate travel, meetings and events, travel payments and aviation professionals.  FACTS is happening at ICC Sydney on 25-26 November 2025 and you can meet many of the Start-ups mentioned here in the FACTS Start-up Village - part of the FACTS Expo.