Travel Fintech Swiipr Raises £6 Million Series A Round

Swiipr, a “travel Paytech” firm, has announced raising £6 million in a Series A funding round led by Octopus Ventures. TX Ventures and Solano Partners also participated in the funding round.

Swiipr aims to provide a service for airlines and their disruption payments systems. The company is described as the “world’s first airline specialized payments platform.”

Since inception in 2020, Swiipr is said to be in use by 26 airlines in 70 different countries including a “major flag carrier.”

Swiipr says that more than 500 million passengers are impacted by flight disruptions each year, costing airlines billions of dollars and upseting passengers.

As some airlines use paper vouchers, which are passenger-unfriendly, and bank transfers take weeks or months to process, Swiipr seeks to provide an alternative to antiquated processes to improve customer service while saving airlines money.

Swiipr offers both virtual and physical pre-paid cards plus a mobile App to address current shortcomings in the system. The service is also said to be compliant as passenger rights regulations change.

The platform is also designed to cut fraud while improving customer loyalty. At the same time it can provide benefitical data to airleins.

Tara Spielhagen, co-founder and CEO of Swiipr, says legacy 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 a 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”

Ian Clowes, co-founder and Chairman of Swiipr, says the service solves a serious issue for airlines. Clowes added that the additional money will help enhance their solution while eliminating other points of friction.

Swiipr is a UK-based Fintech that offers a mobile-first platform. Octopus Ventures is one of the largest and most active venture capital investors in the UK and Europe.