Exploring a new city, venue, or attraction often comes with a tradeoff—guided experiences can be enriching, but they are often expensive, difficult to scale, or simply unavailable. Pintours is changing that by making high-quality, guided experiences accessible anytime, anywhere.
Founded by Lou Chatta, Pintours leverages artificial intelligence to power real-life, on-the-ground experiences. The platform enables travel companies, venues, and destinations to offer dynamic, personalized tours without the traditional operational complexity. By combining AI with the knowledge of expert guides and locals, Pintours creates bespoke experiences that adapt in real time to each user.
Inspired by Lou’s background in R&D at Apple’s Special Projects team—and his father’s lifelong career as a tour guide—Pintours brings together cutting-edge technology and deep industry expertise. The platform empowers tour guides to monetize their knowledge while helping businesses across travel, hospitality, and entertainment deliver scalable, high-quality experiences.
Pintours is already working with leading brands across the travel ecosystem, including GetYourGuide, Uber, and global event partners such as World Cup teams and host cities. The company also collaborates with platforms like Plug and Play, Groupon, Yelp, and Headout, alongside partners in attractions, transportation, and events. Its technology is designed to serve a wide range of use cases—from airlines and OTAs to sports venues and dining experiences—unlocking new opportunities for engagement and revenue.
“As a start-up, we’re excited to join Travel Tech’s Start-Up Membership Program to connect with investors and partners who share our vision for the future of experiences,” said Lou Chatta, CEO of Pintours.
With its focus on AI-driven personalization and real-world connection, Pintours is redefining how people discover and engage with experiences around the globe.
Blending innovation with a passion for exploration, Walkntours is redefining the way travelers experience new destinations.
As an avid world traveler, Gregory Dunn has toured cities around the world. Like many, he noticed that group tours are often inconsistent, inflexible and way too touristy. After digging deeper, he discovered that 50% of travelers don’t like group tours. To fill the gap, Greg founded Walkntours, an app that delivers immersive, hands free, GPS-enabled, self-guided audio walking tours.
The app came to life during a business trip to Paris. While wandering the city, Greg found himself standing in front of the Palais Garnier—the famous Paris Opera House—wondering, “What happened here? Who walked these steps? Why does it matter?” Instinctively, he reached for his phone, thinking, “There must be a tour app for this.” But there wasn’t—so he built one.
“WalknTours is essentially a tour guide in your pocket,” Greg explains. “It gives travelers the freedom to explore on their own schedule—go at your own pace, stop and start whenever you like, and skip the tour guide with the flag and microphone. Each tour leads you to the must-see landmarks, hidden gems, and local favorites, sharing their stories as you walk.”
Now available in over 150 cities and rapidly expanding, WalknTours empowers travelers to take control of their journeys, discovering the world one step at a time.
“As a new member of Travel Tech’s Advocate Program, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many people and build relationships, connecting over our shared passion for travel,” explained Greg. “As a start-up, connections are probably the most important thing and to be able to sit down together to build a relationship with established players in the industry like Tripadvisor or Airbnb has been invaluable.”
We’ve all been there ― your flight’s canceled or delayed, your bag is lost, and you’re left trying to salvage your trip. Often, the last thing on your mind in situations like this is submitting a claim to ensure you’re properly compensated by the airline. Applying for flight compensation can be time-consuming and complex, varying by airline and geography.
Navigating this process can be stressful, and many passengers throw up their arms in defeat.
That’s where AirHelp comes in. AirHelp is the world’s largest tech company that helps passengers navigate through flight disruptions. They do the leg work for passengers and take the hassle out of applying for compensation. Since launching in 2013, AirHelp has served more than 2.2 million passengers worldwide.
AirHelp goes beyond just helping passengers navigate the current patchwork of rules and regulations around flight compensation. They understand the need for proactive advocacy and sound public policy and regulation to ensure the best travel experience possible. That’s why they’ve joined the Travel Tech Association (Travel Tech).
“By joining Travel Tech, we’ll be able to increase awareness of traveler rights and raise the voice of travelers with policymakers and regulators in the United States,” said Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO for AirHelp.
UCPlaces was born out of a need to streamline the touring experience. Uri Sperling, Founder and CEO, spent years traveling the world and dealing with the burdens of navigating the tour guide experience – it was expensive, it wasn’t customizable and tour times were often at the whims of the tour guide company.
Launched in 2020, UCPlaces was originally designed for tour guides to create and sell GPS-guided tours. In the years since starting his operation, Sperling has worked with tourism and service industry companies like hotels and airlines to craft tours all over the world. Users participate in the tour through their phones, which results in a fully customizable experience that focuses on the user journey. Using UCPlaces, travelers can take tours in almost any language, on their schedule and at their pace. “UCPlaces is not only a service provider,” Sperling said, “but a community builder where people can create, share and sell experiences, these experiences are what inspire travelers to go places to begin with.”
“We’re still a small company,” Uri noted. “We feel that we are spearheading new technology in the industry, but with the exponential growth of travelers taking these guided tours on our platform, we believe that in just a few years, almost every traveler with a smartphone will be using their phone to take guided tours and we’re excited to have the influence and might of Travel Tech in our corner.”
Wednesday, May 13, 2026 — The Travel Tech Association is launching the Travel Tech Angel Investor Network Brief — a monthly publication connecting investors with the founders behind Travel Tech’s Start-Up Member companies and the innovations they are bringing to the future of travel. The Brief is built around a simple belief: in early-stage investing, […]
