66. Tribe

Founders: Christopher Moon
Founded: November 2015 (launched January 2016)
Website: www.jointhetribe.travel

Returning to the Startups 100 for the second year in a row is Tribe – the app helping a new generation of travellers to “plan, share, fund, book, live and re-live their travel goals”.

Founder Christopher Moon found travelling exciting but noticed that a lot of the associated organisations weren’t – too many middle men, too much fragmentation, poor insider knowledge and archaic procedures.

Moon and his team spent the first two years focusing on “getting nitty gritty in resorts” to build up the nubile brand’s trust. Then, in April 2017, Tribe won the Start-Up Series – the UK’s largest monthly seed funding competition – and secured £150,000 in equity investment from Worth Capital.

Alongside additional funding from Amersham Investments, this allowed the business to build out its technology offering, making 99% of its product digital. Today it offers trips to more than 60 festivals and destinations, from Barcelona, to Australia and Croatia.

Now, Tribe is building a loyal membership base of young travellers, who get access to unique travel experiences, special perks, and the chance to socialise with likeminded travellers from across the globe.

Its goal is to engage and monetise members across a 15-year lifecycle, offering rewards for community tasks such as creating a wish list or giving other members travel tips. In this way, they are constantly funnelled into planning, funding and sharing the next trip.

To date it has attracted more than 80,000 subscribers and sold more than 5,000 trips. It will now focus on encouraging more subscribers to book trips, targeting 15,000 bookings for 2019.

To this end, the next 12 months will see Tribe launch an app for its global user base with new innovative features that will help it deliver sales. If all goes to plan, Tribe has its sights set on becoming the number one destination for youth travellers globally. This young entrepreneur is shooting for the Moon!