Best Travel and Hospitality Tech Companies in South Africa
The 113 best Travel and Hospitality Tech companies in South Africa in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Travelstart.
When you're trying to map the best Travel and Hospitality Tech companies in South Africa by disclosed equity funding and recent momentum, the numbers get interesting fast. Our directory tracks 113 companies with a combined $59M in disclosed funding, and Travelstart alone accounts for $40M of that, which tells you something about how concentrated the capital stack is. GoMetro pulled in $12M, and a cluster of names including Sava, Afristay and Hepstar each sit at $2M. No unicorns yet, but the global market these companies are swimming in is forecast to grow from $9.4B (2022) to $21.0B by 2032, compounding at 8.6% annually, driven by AI adoption, contactless payments and voice-search integration.
The mobile signal is real too. Across 614 travel and hospitality apps tracked globally, median install growth is running at roughly +19% year-on-year, which isn't nothing. And as hospitality tech players stayed cautious through the pandemic's third wave, the survivors sharpened their product discipline. I'd argue that caution is exactly why South Africa's sector feels more resilient now than its funding totals suggest. Backers like Amadeus Capital, Breega and CRE Venture Capital are active here, and the pipeline is moving.
- ResearchAndMarkets.com
Ranked: Best Travel and Hospitality Tech companies in South Africa
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Travelstart Online retailer of flight booking services for various destinations | $40M | 84 mo ago | Acquired | Stephan Ekbergh Founder | 1999 | Microsoft ASP.NETBootstrapAmazon Web Services+26 | 1 award |
| 2 | GoMetro SaaS-based transit planning solutions for public transport operators | $12M | 30 mo ago | Series A | Justin PrEng Founder & CEO | 2011 | WordPressSentryMySQL+26 | — |
| 3 | Afristay Online marketplace for accommodation booking | $2M | 106 mo ago | Seed | Ric Meulemans Co-Founder & Director | 2006 | Cart FunctionalityPythonUbuntu+8 | — |
| 4 | SAVA Expense management and card solutions for businesses | $2M | 47 mo ago | Seed | Federico Landesmann Co-Founder | 2021 | Node.jsRadix UITailwind CSS+10 | 1 launch |
| 5 | Hepstar Online insurance distribution channel | $2M | 123 mo ago | Seed | — | 2013 | WordPressMySQLPHP+25 | 1 partnership |
| 6 | Conservio Provider of travel agency services | $500K | 17 mo ago | Seed | Justin Rijnberg Co-Founder | 2020 | WordPressMySQLPHP+17 | — |
| 7 | Timbuktu OTA for booking customizable safari packages in Africa | $263K | 119 mo ago | Seed | — | 2015 | Node.jsLeafletYouTube+31 | — |
| 8 | Quickloc8 App-based taxi management solution | $48K | 96 mo ago | Seed | Mbavhalelo Mabogo CEO | 2015 | — | — |
Top 12 Travel and Hospitality Tech companies in South Africa
#1
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2020 · 9 employees$500Kraised▾
Provider of travel agency services
- Jan 2025Seed$1M
- Mar 2023Seed$500K
#2
Series A · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2011$12.4Mraised▾
SaaS-based transit planning solutions for public transport operators. The platform offers solutions like fleet management, journey planning, fleet optimization, data collection, and more. Features includes integrated with the existing system for optimum journey planning, dispatch management, digital twin enabled traffic interventions, and more. The company offers solutions for transit authorities, public transit agencies, and more.
- Nov 2023Series A$11.4M
- Sep 2022Grant (prize money)$52.2K
- May 2022Seed$1M
#3
Acquired · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 1999 · 170 employees$40Mraised▾
Online retailer of flight booking services for various destinations. The platform facilitates searching and booking flights. It requires users to enable JavaScript for proper functionality. The site indicates browser upgrade may be needed for optimal experience.
#4
Seed · Johannesburg, Gauteng · founded 2021 · 10 employees$2Mraised▾
Expense management and card solutions for businesses. It offers solutions for spending management, business card management, transaction management, collateral-free credit, and more. It also offers flexible repayment plans for users. Provides features including invoice management, business account, financing invoices, and more.
- Jun 2022Seed$2M
#5
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2006 · 50 employees$2.2Mraised▾
Operator of an online travel agency intended to provide holiday homes, guest houses, villas, and B&B rentals in Africa. The company offers holiday accommodation with an easy booking process and discounts that are added daily, enabling users to book their dream vacation with payment security in a hassle-free and easy manner.
#6
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2013 · 21 employees$2Mraised▾
Hepstar offers online insurance distribution through various e-commerce platforms. Provides easy to use solutions which website owners can use to increase sales by promoting insurance policies. Insurance providers can reach out the e-commerce savvy population in an easy way. The company earns commissions on the products sold through the platform. They have operations across three continents - Africa, Europe and Asia.
- Feb 2016Seed$2M
#7
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2015 · 20 employees$263.3Kraised▾
Timbuktu is an online platform for booking safari packages in Africa. It enables users to discover, customize and book holidays in Africa. It features Safari trips in 8 destinations in Africa.
- Jul 2016Seed$263.3K
#8
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2015 · 24 employees$48Kraised▾
Quickloc8 is an app-based management solution for offline taxi operators. The solution offers functionalities such as real-time location tracking, driver behavior monitoring, trips overview, fleet management, driver management, real-time alerts (for incidents, overspeeding, etc), route planning, and navigation among others. Its mobile app is available for Android devices. Monetizes through monthly subscription fees.
- Jun 2018Seed$48K
#9
Acquired · Johannesburg, Gauteng · founded 2015 · 10 employees$20Kraised▾
Wizzpass is the parking solutions access control system and app allowing entry and exit to shopping malls, airports, commercial property, office parks, residential property and gated communities via the app. Landlords and tenants can give access to visitors for certain days and times. The visitor automatically receives a notification email specifying the date and time that they will access the building through the app. WizzPass allows the user to see who parked, when they entered, when they left and how often they park. Can also track the total number of entries and exits for a certain time period, which allows to see when then parking has been full or under-utilised.
- Apr 2016Seed$20K
#10
Funding Raised · Johannesburg, Gauteng · founded 2006 · 109 employees—raised▾
Online platform offering car rental services
#11
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2015 · 35 employees—raised▾
Lula is an online platform to book shared door-to-door shuttle services, primarily for corporate/office commuters. The company connects corporate travelers with private shuttle operators. Corporate commuters can sign up on the platform with their recurring schedules. If a certain minimum number of commuters sign-up for the proposed route, a scheduled route is launched. Users can further search, & purchase daily/weekly/monthly passes.
- 2018Seed—
#12
Deadpooled · Johannesburg, Gauteng · founded 2017 · 3 employees—raised▾
Lifti provides an online platform for peer-to-peer intracity carpooling in South Africa. The app connects car owners willing to offer rides with passengers traveling along the similar way and enables users to search & book rides after providing relevant details. Claims that all users are verified and also offers women-only rides for female users.
- Jan 2018Seed—
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Travel and Hospitality Tech coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.