The JetBlue Ventures and Plug and Play Partnership Yields Successful Outcome In Travel & Hospitality Program

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May 01, 2023, 11:00 ET

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- JetBlue Ventures and Plug and Play Tech Center announce that their partnership has once again been successful in fostering innovation and growth in the travel industry. Their partnership aims to increase collaboration in the travel tech industry as both companies discover and pair startups with commercial aviation business opportunities. Through this collaboration, they were able to create an impactful partnership between travel startup Autio, a location-based audio story app, and JetBlue.

JetBlue Ventures and Plug and Play have partnered together over the last seven years to support travel-related technologies and drive innovation. As part of their relationship, Plug and Play operates a Travel & Hospitality Program, which has allowed JetBlue to meet promising startups in the travel and hospitality sector. To support this program, JetBlue Ventures leverages its industry expertise and resources to help startups in the program succeed while also gaining access to cutting-edge technologies and ideas that can enhance the JetBlue customer experience.

Plug and Play's Travel & Hospitality program has already seen great success in connecting startups with corporate partners in the travel industry. Autio was one of the startups that participated in the Winter 2022 Program, and after evaluating their product, JetBlue determined that they would be a good fit for a pilot run in their in-flight entertainment department.

Initially launched in 2020, Autio offers an extensive library of 10,000+ stories across the entire United States and uses GPS to serve up stories based on geographic location. While many users listen to the stories on road trips, many more are using the app in other settings like walks or even traveling virtually from home. Through its partnership with JetBlue, US-domestic travelers will be able to choose Autio stories based on their flight location for the next twelve months. With over 250 stories available in 29 American destinations, customers can listen to the history of their next destination while looking out their window.

"One of the many benefits of JetBlue Ventures' partnership with Plug and Play is our ability to facilitate connections between startups and a larger corporate company. Autio's partnership with JetBlue is an outstanding example of this. Such successes are what make our partnership with Plug and Play so effective," said Stephen Snyder, Managing Director at JetBlue Ventures.

Amir Amidi, Managing Director of Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality, said, "These sorts of partnerships are exactly what our accelerator program is about. We love working with innovative companies like JetBlue Ventures who are eager to offer new and engaging benefits to their travelers and innovative startups like Autio who can adapt their B2C business to reach new audiences."

"Being part of Plug and Play's Travel & Hospitality program gave Autio an incredible opportunity to partner with JetBlue on our first in-flight integration. As a startup, having the support from Plug and Play has been invaluable as it opened the door for growth beyond our consumer subscription business and into enterprise deals and clients," said Woody Sears, CEO of Autio. "We're looking forward to continuing the momentum built upon this partnership."

You can download the Autio app on the Apple App Store today for only $36 a year and have unlimited access to all of their stories wherever you go. Also, you can hear from Kevin Costner directly on this partnership in his interview with Travel+Leisure magazine.

How Autio's App Works:

Users download the app (available in the App Store) and sign up for an account.
Users can access the curated audio story collection once signed in (guest accounts come with 5 free stories, while paid accounts at $36/year feature unlimited access).
Once users enable location access, they are ready to explore nearby stories. Once in-app, they can reveal hidden surroundings with entertaining stories based on GPS location.
While not traveling, users can still access the map of U.S. stories and toggle to choose content based on their interests.

Explore additional Plug and Play case studies and success stories.

About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting start-ups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 50+ locations across 5 continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize start-up acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com

About JetBlue Ventures
JetBlue Ventures, the corporate venture capital subsidiary of JetBlue, invests in and partners with early-stage startups innovating in the travel, transportation, and hospitality industries. The company prioritizes investments that advance the seamless customer-centric journey; reimagine the accommodation experience; next-generation aviation operations and enterprise tech; distribution, loyalty, and revenue management; and sustainable travel. Founded in 2016, JetBlue Ventures is a subsidiary of JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) located in Silicon Valley, California. For more information, visit www.JetBlueVentures.com.

Plug and Play Contact
Kaycee Antosiak
[email protected]

SOURCE Plug and Play