Skyscanner has launched an exciting competition calling on developers to build a game-changing new travel tech product using their APIs. The Build with Skyscanner competition offers the best new travel product the chance to be coached by Founder Gareth Williams, spend a week based in Skyscanner’s Edinburgh HQ, as well as bag a £1000 cash boost to kick-start their new business.
Skyscanner is looking for product ideas that have the potential to truly disrupt the travel industry, giving entrants four months to come up with and build their new site or app.
The competition offers the winning team the chance to receive invaluable one-on-one coaching time with CEO Gareth, who himself knows a thing or two about turning a start-up idea into a success. After starting Skyscanner from a simple spreadsheet back in 2003, the business has grown to become a world leading travel search engine, attracting over 50 million monthly visitors, with 10 global offices and over 770 staff.
The entrepreneurial winning product will spend the week in Skyscanner’s office HQ in Edinburgh, where they will also receive coaching from a world-class team of Engineers, Product Managers and Growth Strategists to help their new business take flight. Entrants will power their pioneering new website or app using Skyscanner’s world-class Travel APIs, which connect developers to all the data they need to create innovative and unique travel solutions.
Skyscanner for Business, the company’s independent B2B unit offers three stand-alone APIs to choose from – flights, hotels and car hire – offering the most flexible integrations and inspirational search features in the market.
Skyscanner has already partnered with a number of promising start-ups who have gone on to do great things by using the APIs. LuckyTrip, who power their flight search using Skyscanner’s inspirational Browse API were named as one of iTunes ‘Top Apps for 2015’, while US-based app Hitlist who power their price alerts via the Skyscanner API, have had 400,000 downloads of their app.
Skyscanner CEO and Co-Founder Gareth Williams commented
We are delighted to invite start-ups and developers to take part in this competition, which we hope will inspire young programmers and businesses to build something truly cutting-edge and bring something fresh to the travel industry. Travel is one the most fascinating industries to due to its complexity and size, and I believe there are endless traveller problems still waiting to be solved. With the right drive and a great idea there is boundless opportunity for trailblazing new products within the travel space.
The competition is now open and entrants can sign up and get started through the Build with Skyscanner page. Keep up to date with the competition on Twitter by following @Skyscannertools and using #BuildwithSkyscanner
About Skyscanner
- Skyscanner is a leading global travel search company providing free search of flights, hotels and car hire.
- Founded in 2003, Skyscanner helps meet the travel planning needs of over 50 million people each month.
- Skyscanner is available in 30 languages.
- Skyscanner’s highly-rated free mobile apps have been downloaded over 40 million times.
- The privately-owned company employs over 700 staff and has ten global offices in Edinburgh, London, Singapore, Beijing, Shenzhen, Miami, Barcelona, Glasgow, Sofia and Budapest. For more information, please visit Skyscanner