Atriis

Jun 9, 2023

Share Squake Squake’sAPI calculates carbon emissions related to any type of travel, such as an airor rail trip or a hotel stay, and then automates carbon reduction orcompensation in the booking flow. Foundedin 2021, Squake is already working with clients including Lufthansa Group, Reed& Mackay, ATG Travel, Atriis and HomeToGo. Whatis your 30-second pitch to investors? The travel industry is under extreme pressure.We are in a critical decade during which the main and only priority is totransform the entire industry to make it finally climate compatible. Themission is complex, the industry still relies heavily on fossil-based energies,the level of awareness needed for decision makers to feel empowered to makebetter decisions is still too low, and making change happen requires tons ofeffort and alignment across the very fragmented layers of this unique industrystructure. Squake’s end-to-end solution was born anddesigned specifically for the travel industry. It’s a single application programming interface plug-in thatpowers precise carbon calculations for all types of activities – flights, cars,hotels and more – according to national and international standards; andautomates carbon reduction and/or compensation along the booking flow, fromvendor selection to inventory management,invoicing and credit retirement. A single solution to raise awareness andempower for better, reliable, impactful decisions. Squake’s solution is fully customizable to blend with the end-user experience onceintegrated at any point of the purchase path. Partners can decide whatcalculation framework matches their regulatory context best or what frameworkis most relevant to their product or program. They can also create their owncompensation portfolio to be selected from Squake’s curated partner network,which includes certified climate protection organizations as well as providersof innovative climate technologies and sustainable fuel providers. Team Squake has built sustainable travelproducts for leading industry players for more than five years and all teammembers have strong track records in the fields of travel, sustainability,product development and solution engineering. Today, the Squake API runs in live systems ofthe largest leisure and business travel companies worldwide, such as the airlinesof the Lufthansa Group, Reed & Mackay, ATG Travel, Atriis and HomeToGo. Company Business - Our solution is built upon three key pillars: Calculations: Our API performs calculations ofcarbon emissions related to any type of travel and logistics activities: hotelstay, air travel, taxi, rail, cruise etc. Our clients can access the most reputablemethodologies available to comply with any regional regulatory context. Our calculationscan be performed from basic to granular data, allowing us to alwaysprovide calculations as close as possible to reality. Compensation: Impact isthe reason that pushed our team to do their best work every day. This is why wehave designed a rigorous specification process going beyond industrystandards, including third-party verifications and co-benefits (per the United NationsSustainable Development Goals) when it comes to selecting the climate projectsthrough which travelers will compensate for the emissions they can’t reduce oravoid in the short term. Integration: travel is avery fragmented industry. We built a solution that blends in any type ofinfrastructure and with all use cases. We provide fulltransparency on our documentation and full team support to better help ourpartners integrate in weeks (rather than in months, if not years in most othercases). Tech: More than three years of development have beeninvested in building our API, now leading the way to achieve accuratecalculations at scale and enabling millions of travelers to make betterinformed and conscious decisions. The infrastructure is designed as a modular,customizable solution. It is built on proven technology and can be tailored toeach client’s specific needs and requirements. The stateless API is, citing ourclients, the most performant carbon emissions API available on the markettoday. It is built upon a state-of-the-art tech stack, designed to providesecure, fast and accurate carbon emissions calculations at scale. Our API is already up-and-running in the livesystems and critical paths of global industry leaders, such as the airlines ofLufthansa Group, Reed & Mackay or Atriis, covering the full spectrum fromleisure to business travel use cases. The highest requirements according todata security and performance standards are met. Today, Squake handles morethan 10 million requests per day with an average response time of less than 100milliseconds. Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company. Strengths: Tech superiority Travel/transportbackground of the team and clear focus = relevance of what we built for theseneeds and not just yet another generic tool Strong and exclusivepartnership with sustainable aviation fuels suppliers Our collaborativemindset. We want all of our partners to succeed, so we go the extra mile tosupport our clients for a successful/fast integration and to participatetogether towards positive impact Weaknesses: Opportunity: Fast-growing pressurefor the market to adopt sustainable travel options and offering to counteractthe terrible effects of climate change, abide by a fast-evolving regulatorycontext and protect their market shares and reputation in matching theircustomers’ values and expectations Threats: Lack of globalregulation and alignment in standards causing uncertainty What are the travel pain points you are tryingto alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective? Travel is a force for good for humanity; it istime to reconcile it with being good for the planet too! The problem is travelers still have a very limitedawareness and understanding of their travel related emissions. And if they do,they feel lost when trying to make decisions to limit their impact. Squake ishere to solve all of the above, with building sustainable travel awareness atthe heart of the existing huge network of travel booking outletsand providing decision makers with tangible and carefully qualifiedcompensation solutions with real impact in just a few clicks. So you've got the product, now how will you getlots of customers? Sustainable travel must happen today and musthappen at scale! This is why we have been joined by experts from the travelindustry, whose network, expertise and passion has already convinced globalleaders to trust and implement Squake (Reed & Mackay, ATG Travel, Atriisand many more to be announced soon). Tell us what process you've gone through toestablish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressablemarket. Incubated at the heart of the industry, in theLufthansa Innovation Hub, the reason for creating Squake started from acritical need already existing. We are not creating demand, we are providingthe solution that finally provides the right solution, the right way, with theright purpose. How and when will you make money? Squake is an established business model andtherefore has been making revenue almost since day one. Our business model is amix between set-up fee and annual fee. What are the backgrounds and previousachievements of the founding team? Both co-founders have a solid track record intheir respective fields of expertise. One in pioneeringinnovative tech-based products to unlock positive change in the travelindustry, the other in supporting scale-ups to define and deliver on their marketleading value propositions. How have you addressed diversity and inclusionwithin your business? Squake is dedicated to creating a workplace thatprovides opportunities for all backgrounds and personalities. This is somethingwe live and breathe from our recruiting process, to our employee experienceencouraging flexible and remote working, to our company culture overall whereeveryone is welcome to share their opinion. For example, women make up 80%of our leadership team (reporting directly to the co-founders). What's been the most difficult part of foundingthe business so far? Keeping up with demand! From day one, the markethas been manifesting pressing demand for our solution. We knew of the existingpressure coming from the regulatory context, customer expectations and from thefinancial markets. The relevancy of our technology has been confirmed to beexactly what the market needed to respond to it. We have since been busyhelping teams and companies all over the globe implementing sustainable travelacross the many use cases we can serve. Generally, travel startups face a fairly toughtime making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones? Because impact is the core of everything we do,every decision we make, every product feature we build and every client weempower. Our solution isalready up-and-running in the infrastructure of global companies. A year from now, what state do you think yourstartup will be in? We are already in integration phase with some ofthe biggest companies in the world. A year from now, their clients will finallyexperience their new, sustainably augmented, travel search and booking onlineexperiences. What is your end-game (going public,acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)? We are fully focused on growth! PhocusWire's Startup Stage