Shep Wins Travel Startup Competition at Plug and Play Winter Summit

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Travel technology startup, Shep, took home the top award in the travel startup competition at the Plug and Play's Winter Summit 2018. The win comes after a 12-week startup accelerator program, with over 200 travel startups initially applying, 18 being accepted, and ultimately Shep winning the top honor.

"Our Winter Summit was one of our largest ever, with participation by a few hundred startups, investors and corporate partners," said Amir Amidi, Managing Partner, Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality Program. "Shep stood out by the interest they received during the accelerator from our corporate business partners."

Shep has quickly been gaining prominence and collecting top honors from top travel industry media over the past year, including:

• Business Travel News, 2017 Corporate Travel Innovator You Should Know
• Skift, 2018 Corporate Travel Innovator
• Business Travel News, 2018 Innovate Competition, Honorable Mention
• Phocuswright, Hot 25 Travel Startups 2019
• Plug and Play Travel, 2018 Winter Summit, Startup Winner

"Being voted as the winner at Plug and Play Travel by a room full of Silicon Valley VCs, angel investors, and travel industry experts is a huge honor for our team," reacted Daniel Senyard, Shep co-founder and CEO. "Plug and Play Travel has significantly helped Shep to expand business partnerships, fundraising and our overall industry network."

In the past year, Shep has established initial paying customers and has moved up-market to larger corporate travel programs. Shep has also signed a reseller partnership with Flight Centre Travel Group, one of the top travel agencies with over $16B annual travel bookings, to offer Shep to their corporate clients. Flight Centre also received the Corporate Innovation award at the Plug and Play Travel competition.

Here are the video recordings of the 3-minute winning pitch from Shep and the award presentations to Shep and Flight Centre Travel Group.

About Shep

Founded in late 2016, Shep (originally founded as Compl.ai) helps companies, travel managers, and travel management companies understand, monitor and save on business travel bookings made on consumer sites. Shep helps enterprises gain insight into the large data and expense blind spot that occurs when employees choose to book travel outside of managed travel programs. Shep has received $1.6M in seed funding from Capital Factory, Moonshots Capital, and angel investors, including Ellen Keszler, former President at Travelocity Business, Kathy Misunas, former CEO at Sabre, and Jim Finnigan, Co-Founder at SoFi. More at www.sheptravel.com

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the ultimate innovation platform, bringing together the best startups, investors, and the world's largest corporations. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, they have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. To give startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond, Plug and Play is now active in over 20 locations globally, including the U.S., China, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore, Indonesia, Mexico, and more.

The Travel & Hospitality Center of Innovation at Plug and Play has had the privilege of working with leading travel companies such as Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Flight Centre Travel Group, Delta Air Lines, AccorHotels, JetBlue Technology Ventures and many more. Their Batch 6 Travel & Hospitality Accelerator Program included startups and growth-stage companies such as ClimaCell, HYP3R, Gladly and Go Moment.

More at www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/travel

Contact: Daniel Senyard, co-founder and CEO                   
Company: Shep (originally founded as Compl.ai)
Phone: 512-921-4769
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Shep