With about 40 travel management companies on the platform,
its first pilot with a large enterprise client underway and a new category
under development, corporate travel procurement marketplace Gazzebo.ai in the
coming weeks is "moving from early access to full market presence,"
co-founder and CEO Jeff Urban said.
Over the past few years, Urban said Gazzebo has been built
as "a marketplace that replaces the spreadsheet-driven [request
for proposal] with structured, living supplier profiles, so buyers compare real
capability instead of narrative." For buyers, the platform is free to use,
with the revenue model based on suppliers paying for access.
On the platform, buyers can search and filter TMCs by
coverage, capabilities and offerings. In one option, for example, a buyer could
click on a map every country their organization is in and see which TMCs would
be able to service them, and could filter to see only wholly owned options to
serve them. They also can filter by support for certain online booking
platforms, supported languages or industry specializations.
TMCs, meanwhile, can provide their own information, with Gia providing suggestions to assist them in building their marketplace profile. They also can receive information on when requests are received that match their profile as well as analytics of how many users are viewing their profile and how they compare with competitors.
TMCs, meanwhile, can provide their own information, with Gia
helping to determine which information is missing or inaccurate to assist them in
building their marketplace profile. They also can receive information on when
requests are received that match their profile as well as analytics of whom is
viewing their profile and how they compare with competitors.
Getting TMCs on the platform "has always been a little
bit like herding cats" but now is "closer to FOMO," with 40 TMCs
including the largest ones participating, Urban said.
In addition, the platform includes community and events
features, with which users can keep up on industry news and see opportunities
to connect buyers and suppliers at upcoming events, he said.
Gazzebo has not publicly identified the company
participating in the live sourcing event on its platform, its first enterprise
pilot, but Urban said it is a Fortune 50 company that is part of BTN's
CT100 listing. The platform built the RFx for the pilot, including 11
weighted categories and AI-assisted scoring controlled by the buyer.
"The buyer weights the questions that matter to their
own program, and Gia does the heavy analysis on the responses," Urban said.
"The differentiator is turning a stack of paperwork into a clear, weighted
comparison the buyer controls."
While TMCs are intended to be the "MVP" and
"backbone" of the platform, Gazzebo has a roadmap to expand to
include other supplier categories, including air and hotel, Urban said. It soon
will launch an "online solutions" category including online booking
tools, online travel agencies tailored for corporate travel and other
technology solutions. Serko is helping Gazzebo build that out as its next phase
with Serko.ai as the "first mover," according to Urban.
"We want to build fast, so the category originator is
the one who invests and partners with us," he said. "A retired
airline executive told me the RFP process on the airline side is every bit as
painful as it is for TMCs. If we can make that simpler, that is a real
prize."