Travel paytech startup Swiipr secures £6M in Series A funding to fix airline disruption payments

Every year, millions of travelers worldwide face the frustration of flight disruptions, causing headaches for both passengers and airlines alike. These cause airlines to lose billions of dollars, resulting in customer dissatisfaction, reputation damage, and huge fines. It is a problem crying out for a solution.

Enter Swiipr, a UK-based travel payment tech startup that transforms the outdated and cumbersome systems airlines use to compensate passengers for disruptions.

Today, Swiipr announced it has secured £6 million ($7.67 million) in Series A funding led by Octopus Ventures, with support from TX Ventures and Solano Partners. This injection of capital will fuel Swiipr’s efforts to refine its strategy, product, and technology, with a focus on research and development, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. Their ultimate goal? To expand their reach within the international airline market.

Swiipr isn’t just another payment platform. It’s specifically tailored for airlines, aiming to digitize the compensation process and improve the overall passenger experience. Since its launch in 2020, Swiipr has already partnered with 26 airlines across 70 countries, including a major flag carrier with thousands of staff utilizing their platform in airports worldwide.

Traditional methods of compensation, like paper vouchers and bank transfers, are cumbersome and slow. Swiipr’s digital platform offers a solution to these pain points, providing virtual and physical prepaid compensation cards alongside a user-friendly mobile app. This not only streamlines the process for airlines but also ensures passengers receive instant and secure compensation, all while staying compliant with regulations.

For passengers, Swiipr introduces the Compensation Card, allowing airlines to distribute funds directly at the point of disruption, such as denied boarding or lost luggage. Additionally, the Welfare Card provides instant food and beverage payments during flight delays. These digital cards offer a seamless and universally compatible way to receive compensation.

Co-founded by Tara Spielhagen and Ian Clowes, Swiipr is driven by a vision to modernize airline compensation systems, reducing disruption and stress for both passengers and airline staff. Their platform doesn’t just benefit passengers; it helps airlines cut down on fraud and processing time, while also providing valuable insights into customer behavior.

In a statement, Spielhagen emphasized the need to move past outdated compensation systems, highlighting the significant benefits of Swiipr’s solution.

“Legacy compensation systems are unfit for purpose. Not only do they cost an airline billions of dollars every year but they also exacerbate disruption and stress. It doesn’t need to be this way in the digital age, and we are proud to have developed a new solution that solves so many pain points. Our airline partners and their customers are already reaping the benefits,” Spielhagen said.

Clowes echoed this sentiment, noting the importance of addressing global issues like climate change and compensation friction points.

“Swiipr solves a real live global issue for airlines which is only going to become more challenging with climate change. Now, thanks to Octopus, our Series A capital will enable us to enhance our solutions even further and accelerate our growth helping us to achieve our vision of eliminating compensation friction points wherever they exist,” Clowes said.

Tosin Agbabiaka from Octopus Ventures expressed confidence in Swiipr’s ability to transform compensation payments for airlines, praising the founders’ expertise and the effectiveness of their solution. With a strong backing and a clear vision, Swiipr is poised to make waves in the airline industry, one disrupted flight at a time.

“We’ve been impressed by the power of Swiipr’s offering to fundamentally transform compensation payments, delivering the scale and efficiency of modern payments to the airline industry while significantly improving the travel experience for their customers. “Swiipr’s founders bring the depth of expertise in both the payments and travel industries necessary to tackle the airline compensation challenge. This complimentary skillset, and the effectiveness of its solution, have enabled Swiipr to already gain strong traction with major global carriers this early in its development,” Agbabiaka said.