VC Roundup: Corporate Venture Edition

About this episode

If you want to understand where travel tech is going, follow the money. And right now, the money is doing some very interesting things.

Venture capital investment in travel has been in a complicated place since the post-COVID boom ran out of steam. Rising interest rates reshaped return expectations, a string of high-profile late-stage corrections reset valuations, and many LPs grew cautious about the capital intensity of marketplace and infrastructure businesses. But underneath that macro turbulence, the investment thesis for travel tech is quietly getting more compelling — not less.

AI has changed the calculus dramatically. The marginal cost of building software is collapsing. Founders are doing more with less. And the potential to layer intelligence on top of what has historically been a fragmented, data-rich but technology-poor industry is generating genuine excitement among investors who understand the space.

At the same time, the exit landscape remains constrained. IPO markets have shown selective green shoots, M&A activity is picking up, but vintage 2020–2022 funds are sitting on portfolios that still need resolution. That creates pressure — and in some cases, creative dealmaking.

Corporate venture is also playing a bigger role. These firms are investing not just for financial return but to understand and shape the technology ecosystem around their core business. That creates a different kind of capital, with different motivations and a different relationship to founders.

This episode takes the temperature of travel tech investment with three investors who see the landscape from very different vantage points — and asks what the next vintage of travel tech winners might actually look like.

Follows

Gilad Berenstein – host

Cara Whitehill - host

Laly Vandenberghe — guest

Kevin Tsang – guest 

Shiro Matsuzaki — guest

Go Deeper

• How Much is Travel Actually Changing? - TNMT
• Travel funding deal volume hits new low in Q1 2026 - PhocusWire
• How CEOs are turning corporate venture building into outsize growth - McKinsey
• Corporate Venture Building 2025 - Global Corporate Venturing Institute
• The way to win in corporate venturing: Serial building and AI - McKinsey