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25 April 2023 17:30-19:00Innovation City Cape Town

" RESHAPING TRAVEL AND TECH"  STEPHAN EKBERGH, FOUNDER, TRAVELSTART

Travel is the most important industry in the world. It is the starter engine of the global economy; a silent peacekeeper and a lubricant for our lives. It is the starting point in making this planet a better place. Travel advances society by appreciating diversity, brings understanding between peoples and cultures, and allows us to better understand an urgent need for unity.

Travelstart is blessed with great colleagues that can turn things around even when facing adversity, as we did with COVID-19 restrictions in South Africa. We figured out a way to support our staff and how to survive as a company by co-creating solutions. We then turned our full attention to work on how to serve the tens of thousands of customers who could not get their money back from the airlines. We focused on ways to help people return to travel and business. While the South African government’s restrictions hit the travel industry hardest, we managed to turn our company around and assist in reviving the travel industry and the South African economy.

I live by the creed: ‘If you don’t believe in miracles, you’re not being a realist.’ Those miracles are innovation and disruption. When building Travelstart in 1998, just about everything was a challenge: The industry was very young, and most things needed to be invented, from websites to payments, getting suppliers, and taking it to market.

My creativity was overflowing during COVID-19’s restrictions. My team and I saw opportunities where we could improve our business to make it easier for people to return to travel – and make the user experience all the better. We are betting on ways to improve online payments. It is the greatest challenge for Travelstart and other online businesses.

Travelstart customers can pay for online travel services using a variety of channels tailored to suit the needs of people in each country. In some countries, Travelstart uses mopeds to deliver tickets bought online and also collect payment at the customer’s door! I am always looking at where technology can be a differentiator for change.

- Stephan

All you need to know

What: Travelstart: Founder's Story

Where: Innovation City Cape Town

When: 25 April 2023

Time: 5:30pm - 7pm

Details: Come and listen to Stephan Ekbergh's remarkable Founder Story of Travelstart: Taking Flight April 25th 5:30pm-7:00pm at Innovation City


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Speaker

Stephan Ekbergh
Founder Travelstart

Stephan Ekbergh has been a successful serial entrepreneur for more than two decades across multiple, continents and is best known for his pioneering work in the online travel industry. He is the Chief Executive Officer and owner of Travelstart, one of the biggest online travel agencies in Africa with a presence in 16 countries in Africa as well as Turkey, the UAE, Qatar, KSA, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.

Born in Sweden, Stephan started his first business at age 18 as a DJ and booking DJ’s and musical acts for clubs in Malmö. In search of a ‘proper job’ he entered the travel industry in 1989, starting a company named International Tours. After selling the company, he continued to found a number of travel start-ups; including the first automated telephone-based booking company in Sweden called Sistaminutenplatser.

Less than ten years later, he went on to launch Sweden’s first online travel agency, Mr. Jet. Not long thereafter, in 1999, Stephan started Travelstart. He sold his interests in the company and eventually bought it back after the dot com bust of 2001- only to sell the European business again (2010) in order to move into emerging African markets.

“No matter if you are in service, technology or retail, the same business logic applies. People want to work for a company that represents something more than money. Customers want to get a good deal and be treated with respect.”

Based in Cape Town since 2004 with his wife and daughters, Stephan is a supporter of Travel Massive’s Cape Town chapter and an advocate for education in the local community. Through the Thembalitsha Foundation, he supports the School of Hope in the Observatory area of Cape Town which aids at-risk youth in pursuing a second chance at education in a supportive environment.

In 2022, Stephan co-founded the dynamic business growth platform Innovation City, with the hopes to make Cape Town the tech capital of Africa. 

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Innovation City@innovationcitycpthello@innovationcity.co.za

Innovation City is an invitation-only community of digital start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, entrepreneurs, world changers and innovators. It is a world-class network that helps accelerate digital innovation in Cape Town through fostering co-creation. Through partnership with Epicenter Stockholm and its 500+ membership companies, Innovation City can help fast track Cape Town’s digital ambitions.