COMPANY A-Z

Kompas

When arriving in a city, people generally have 3 main problems when exploring, working out where to go and find out how to have the best possible experience. Firstly, more often than not, people are short on time and don’t know where to go. You end up looking to guide books, travel websites and asking for advice, and waste a significant amount of time doing it. We solve this by using machine learning to understand who you are and what you like, quickly presenting you with places that you’ll enjoy, and saving you the effort of having to work out what to do.

Next, you don’t know how to get around the city, so you end up in the same places and areas that you already know and feel comfortable in. You miss out on the city subcultures, and the truly local and independent establishments scattered across the city. The way in which we solve this is by rerouting you to the location in question quickly, but also in a way that’s comfortable for you. If you’re used to getting an Uber, you can book it and be on your way. If you’d prefer to cycle, we’ll optimise your route and itinerary for cycling around the city. Not only this, but the content you’re actually presented with is highly curated, meaning that you’re always going to see new and upcoming things and places that are truly hidden. Plus, thanks to the technology, we’ll make sure that once again, we match your interests to the places, so you really enjoy the experience.

Finally, platforms today spend too much time trying to satisfy everyone with the content that they present. Reviews are untailored, you can’t trust what people are saying, and you don’t know whether the reviews are real, or stipulated by the place themselves. We do away with top 10 lists, and the best-rated places in a city, because we know, and understand that everyone is different. That’s why we’re improving the customer experience for city exploration. We make sure that you read reviews from people similar to you so that you can understand what a place is like before visiting. With KOMPAS, you can plan, book and share your travel experiences, and really see what a city has to offer. We do all of this, using machine learning, big data, and smart algorithms.

We have two key use-cases for the product that we provide our customers with. The use case will depend on whether the customer is local in a city, or a tourist visiting a new city. As a local, the use case revolves around making sure that they find the best places to visit, and have the best experience possible. This is created through personalisation, and the user will largely use the explore feature for the application. It gives them access to what’s going on nearby and allows them to book into places, and optimise the best route there. After enjoying the experience, they’re then prompted to give feedback, so that we can personalise the experience further in the future. This also means that we can clarify the feedback loop, and make sure that customers are having a good experience.

As a traveller, the use case focuses on trip planning, saving itineraries and making sure that they’re able to plan a day in the city that they’re visiting. Similarly to the local, they can book into places, events and book tickets for transport, and will also be prompted to review the place as part of the feedback loop. All of this focuses around improving the customer experience for the end-user while increasing footfall in the city.

In both of these cases, we have a revenue model built around data that are generated as part of the feedback loop, and through affiliate and proximity marketing channels. We’ve also got our strategic partnerships that benefit both from better visibility to particular customers, and improve the customer experience within our application.

As a result of all of this, we’ve been able to grow at over 50% month on month, something that we expect to continue in future months. We’ve been named as one of the top 500 deep technology companies worldwide by Hello Tomorrow and were shortlisted as one of the ‘hottest travel start-ups of 2017’ by the Europas. We’ve been named by Startacus and Tech World News as one of the top-travel technology start-ups in the UK, and Company Address named us as one of the UK’s ‘Top 10 most inspirational start-ups of 2017’.

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