When guest travel management technology Pana exited the market a few years ago, it left a void that its co-founder Devon Tivona decided to fill once again. As he re-entered that space this year with the launch of guest travel management app Juno, he suddenly found himself in a much more competitive arena.
Pana's end came at the hands of Coupa, which acquired the technology to power its own travel booking platform—that it later decided to discontinue—and spun down its Pana Guest capabilities. Tivona announced plans to launch Juno, built on lessons learned from Pana, in late 2024, saying former customers had told him that "there was nothing that had the prescriptive, guided end-to-end nature of what we had built."
By the time Juno launched last summer, former Google head of travel Greg Wilczek, along with fellow Googler Vishal Chouhan, was launching his own platform for non-profiled travelers. Wilczek and Tivona had discussed working together but ultimately decided to pursue their own paths in the space. In July, American Express Global Business Travel launched its own guest travel management platform for U.S.-point-of-sale customers, with plans to broaden its use to availability for non-clients.
Tivona said the competition is a validation of Pana's original focus.
"If you think about it, guests can be some of the most strategic travelers for a business," Tivona said. "Pana [showed] this problem, which had always been relegated tooffline, could be solved via a technology solution. That's become the market standard for what offerings are opening up."
Since their launch, Juno and Empath each have broadened their scope beyond general guest travel, adding specialization to specific verticals including health care and media and entertainment. Juno also added capabilities for guest meetings. Additionally, the companies have been expanding their travel management company relationships, including with BCD Travel, which recently announced it is adding both Juno and Empath to its marketplace to complement the TMC's own guest travel tool.
As those partnerships expand—or TMCs go their own path, like Amex GBT—Tivona said having technology to simplify and automate guest travel management is becoming "table stakes" for TMCs.
"Your competitors are going to have it, whether that's a homegrown thing or with a partnership with a company like Juno," he said. "I think that's really how the market has shifted."