Automated payment solution SquadTrip, a Black-owned business, has launched an online tool to help travel professionals target millennial travelers by offering flexible payment installments, Apple Pay checkout and promo codes.
The Brooklyn, New York-based startup says it enables organizers of large- and small-group trips to create booking pages, accept payments efficiently and manage communication and financials in one place. SquadTrip's platform eliminates the need for tracking payments using spreadsheets or sending multiple messages, according to the company.
“The idea for SquadTrip developed while helping a close friend create a simpler way to collect money for his birthday trip,” says Darrien Watson, the tech company’s co-founder. “With our software system, he turned an annual group trip into a million-dollar travel business.”
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The software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform was recently chosen for the inaugural Build In Tulsa Techstars Accelerator. SquadTrip won $120,000 and says it plans to use additional funding to add marketing tools and educational resources for travel entrepreneurs.
The two Tulsa, Okla.-based organizations, Techstars and Build in Tulsa, say they selected “12 of the most promising startups” representing “diverse-led teams with the majority of the companies being founded and led by Black CEOs.”
Over the next three months, Techstars will “help the founders rapidly scale their operations, customers and access to capital, with the help of an amazing mentor network and our partner organization, Build in Tulsa, building on the legacy of Black Wall Street. The class will showcase their progress in a Demo Day the week of November 3, 2022.”
SquadTrip co-founder Stevon Judd says hundreds of travel organizers use the tool to manage three or more trips per year.
Travel professionals can build customized trip pages and travel packages and set up payment plans and automatic billing. Other features include managing reservation details, DocuSign integration for signing waivers and chargeback agreements and daily payouts with Stripe. SquadTrip users can create an account for free with no monthly payments and a 4% fee on each transaction, according to the company.
“Most of our clients agree that our automated features make it easier to track and collect payments while expanding their business,” Judd adds.
SquadTrip’s co-founders previously created an event-ticketing platform for Black entrepreneurs and won eBay’s Startup Cup Challenge in 2017.