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Hi there,

One of the most rewarding things about writing this newsletter is to regularly receive a ton of feedback from many of you on what you like and what you would like to see more of.

Something we hear quite often is the wish for broader coverage of the entire Travel and Mobility Tech ecosystem, so less focus on specific subsectors such as airlines.

Today, we want to give it a try.

Instead of covering one or two major topics only, you’ll find a wider selection of data charts and insights that we've researched over the previous two weeks. They are explored less in detail but come with bite-sized commentary. This allows us to cover a lot more ground. 

Let us know what you think. 

Newsletter specs: 1,080 words = 5:20 minutes of reading time.

Lennart Dobravsky
Director Research & Intelligence, Lufthansa Innovation Hub

 Research 

Domestic flights – the source of all climate evil?

By plane from Hamburg to Frankfurt?

“Unacceptable, you climate sinner!”

These are just some of the words you would likely have heard from participants of the “Fridays for Future” movement. 

But how serious is the impact of domestic flights in terms of CO2 output compared to other modes of transportation?

We analyzed the data and visualized the figures for a more intuitive comparison.
Read the full article
 Trends 

The level of innovation by industry

In our previous newsletter, we learned that traditional companies in the travel industry are not preparing themselves enough for the digital future.

The data evidence: fewer and fewer travel-related companies are ranked among the most innovative firms in the world.
 
We wondered: if the travel industry is struggling so much, how about all the other industry sectors? So, we took a look.
 

Turns out that the travel industry’s downward innovation trend is only matched by the Industrial sector that also doesn't bother much to reinvent itself.

The Automotive and Media & Entertainment industries, on the other hand, are holding up bravely.

But the real winners are the Retail and Technology sector. They truly play in a different league, spearheading the global economy in terms of innovation power.

What do you make of this comparison? Let us know on Linkedin or Twitter.
 Research 

Innovating in times of crisis

Speaking of corporate innovation, we received a couple of angry emails (mostly from people at major airlines), complaining that it’s wrong to ask corporations, especially travel companies, to prioritize innovation in times of arguably the worst crisis of our industry ever. 

We do feel your pain.

And we agree that supporting innovation-led growth should be properly balanced against cutting costs, driving productivity, and strengthening the core business.

However, even in times of crisis, companies need to invest in innovation. Because those who do will outperform their peers during the recovery as previous analyses by McKinsey and BCG have shown.

And the same will hold true for 2020.

In fact, innovation is more critical than ever before – something the pandemic already proves.

My colleague Kolin compared the market cap of “innovative companies” (those regularly ranked among BCG’s Top 50 Innovator list) vs. the broader market, see here:
 

The key finding: those who prioritize innovation have unlocked growth even DURING the crisis.

In all three quarters of 2020, serial innovators have outperformed the market even more so than in the previous 5 years leading up to this crisis.

Do yourself a favor and present this chart to your Executive Board the next time they ask you to cut your innovation budgets.
 Startups 

The updated unicorn club

Becoming a unicorn is a pretty big thing in startup land.

A while ago, we calculated that only 0.34% or 1 in 297 startups manage to reach unicorn status. Without a doubt, joining the ranks of billion-dollar companies is anything but easy.

And like it or not, startup ecosystems are partly defined by how big their unicorn herds are. 

Shaken up by the global pandemic, Travel and Mobility Tech’s exclusive group of privately-held startups valued at more than $1 billion is going through some major changes.

A couple of firms had to leave the group due to painful down rounds or because they got acquired (Zoox, Lime), while several newcomers joined the gang. Overall, we are net positive as we count more unicorns in our sector than ever before (currently 49 vs. 45 at the beginning of 2020).

Check out our Unicorn Map and the respective Unicorn List for more details on all these innovative frontrunners.
 Research 

New Report: All about air taxis 

After publishing our State of Travel and Mobility Tech in Asia Report two weeks ago, we are now preparing for our next major research release.

It's going to focus on the emerging air-taxi or eVTOL space (whatever terminology you prefer).

It's as relevant as it can get because air-taxi startups are among the big winners in terms of VC funding investments in 2020 so far.

No other category had a bigger increase in average yearly investment value than what we coined "New Air Travel" which includes air-taxi startups but also space travel and other futuristic forms of transportation.
 

Throughout our 50-page data-heavy report, we will deep dive into the most well-funded startups – see a preview below – and we will also look behind the R&D curtain by analyzing the patent landscape of air-taxi manufacturers – something not many analysts have done before us.

Get on our waiting list now and be the first to receive the report when it's ready.
 
Sign up for the waiting list
 Press Picks 

Our recommended must reads 

THE VACCINE LIFELINE – Could the COVID-19 vaccine mean a rebound for travel startups in 2021? Players like Hopper and TripActions (Lufthansa Group is an investor in both of them) share their latest thoughts.
 Read more by Crunchbase  
UNDERSTANDING AIRBNB – On-point and detailed analysis of the Airbnb case as the company filed their S-1 the other week in preparation for their IPO.
 Read more by The Diff  
ZOOM VS AIRLINES – Harvard researchers discover a surprising reason why Zoom and Skype won’t kill business travel. Study authors attribute this link to the movement of what they dub “knowhow.”
 Read more by Fast Company
BOLD PROJECTION – Bill Gates says more than 50% of business travel and over 30% of days in the office will disappear in the post-coronavirus world. 
 Read more by CNBC
TO FLY OR NOT TO FLY PT.II – Frequent-flying “‘super emitters” who represent just 1% of the world’s population caused half of aviation’s carbon emissions in 2018, according to a study.
 Read more by The Guardian  
 Deal Tracker 

Most recent Venture Capital deals

 = Exit Alert (startup listed at the stock exchange or got acquired)

 = Unicorn Alert (post-deal company valuation at >$1B) 


Gojek – the Indonisian ride-hailing super app raised $150M from Telkomsel. 

Livestorm – the Paris-based browser-based meeting and webinar startup raised $30M from Aglaé Ventures, Bpifrance Digital Venture, Raise Ventures and, IDInvest. 

Tourlane  – the Berlin-based online travel-booking platform for multi-day tours raised $20M from Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, and further investors. 

Xbed – the Chinese subsidiary brand of online unmanned hotel platform raised $15M from Shenzhen Grand Capital. 

Calmcar – the Chinese automobile intelligent driving vision systems raised $14.95M from Alpha Win Capital, China Capital Zhongcai Fund Management, and further investors. 

Oxio – the New York-based mobile-carrier-as-a-service platform raised $12M from Monasheesand Atlantico Capital and further investors.  

Maidbot – the US-based housekeeping robots for hotels raised $8.9M from Octave Ventures and Reckitt Benckiser Group. 

Scorpio Electric – the Singapore-based smart e-motorcycle startup raised $6.3M from undisclosed private investors. 

Scoobic Group – the Spanish startup specialized in multi-purpose electric vehicles for last-mile delivery raised $2.37M from Innoenergy and Juan Verde. 

Yunjiu Technology – the Beijing-based smart hotel technology solution provider raised $7.45M from undisclosed investors. 

Vikey – the Italian online facility management platform intended to allow self-check-in and check-out processes for vacation apartments raised $0.8M from LVenture Group and further investors. 

Dohop – the Icelandic airline software vendor has raised an undisclosed growth equity round from Scottish Equity Partners. 

Ridecell – the US-based ride-sharing platform raised an undisclosed amount from Fort Ross Ventures. 

Outdoorsy – the US-based on-demand marketplace intended to offer road trips and recreational vehicle adventures raised an undisclosed amount from Autotech Ventures and London Technology Club. 

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