Company Intro
Agile Travel Group is the owner of Cruiseable, the cruise discovery engine for empowered travelers.
What we do
We help travelers with their decision journey. Cruiseable is a cruise discovery engine that matches travelers with the perfect cruise experience.
How we do it
We’ve built AI-powered recommendation technologies on top of a database of 7,400+ real-time cruise itineraries and 34,000+ sailings.
What we do
Travelers love our cruise discovery and booking solution. Agile Travel experienced 119.5% revenue growth from 2023 to 2024.
Fact Sheet
Cruise travel
INDUSTRY
Lead generation
SPECIALTY
Dorado,
Puerto Rico
HEADQUARTERS
U.S.
GOVERNING LAW
S Corp.
BUSINESS TYPE
Delaware
STATE OF INCORPORATION
3
YEARS IN BUSINESS
330,000
WEBSITE VISITORS PER MONTH
2
EMPLOYEES
8
PT TEAM MEMBERS (1099s)
119%
ANNUAL REVENUE GROWTH
33
CRUISE LINES SUPPORTED
Advisors from
Executive Summary
Our story
Agile Travel Group, Inc. was launched at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., as a way to signal that this was a different kind of travel company: lean, innovative, embracing new technologies, and optimizing for growth.
Co-founders J.D. Lasica and Giacomo Balli were veteran cruisers who were frustrated that the process of finding the right cruise was still stuck in the 1990s, with travel agencies sending print brochures to clients’ homes or connecting travelers with agents who lacked the experience to make an informed recommendation.
Our solution
The founders spent two years reverse-engineering the cumbersome cruise discovery, planning, and booking process. We combine sophisticated filtering technology and AI algorithms with exclusive deals, trustworthy travel journalism, and a rich visual experience.
We put decision-making power into the hands of travelers who prioritize, romance, dining, entertainment, staterooms, etc. We then connect these “warm leads” with travel professionals who have access to discounts and perks available through our relationship with the cruise lines.
CEO J.D. Lasica (center) and CTO Giacomo Balli with travel consultant Lisa Theodoratus aboard Cunard’s Queen Mary.
Partnerships & Integrations
The Agile Travel team spent most of the past two years on Cruiseable’s back end, creating business partnerships and API or XML integrations with 33 ocean, river, and expedition cruise lines covering 95% of the cruises in the world in the world — plus major resorts.
The Opportunity
Business optimization
A.I. is disrupting every major industry—including travel. Our collaboration with data scientists can help a business modernize its customer acquisition funnel, increasing efficiencies while enhancing customer satisfaction.
High ROI
Because we use a remote team of contractors, our overhead is low. AI allows us to increase booking revenue without significant costs by targeting new customer segments, optimizing offers, and conducting A/B testing of campaigns.
Scalability
Our goal is to 10x our current income levels in three years’ time and 100x it in seven years’ time via not just commissions but additional revenue streams.
New Revenue Opportunities
Charters
We have already had National Football League alumni from major teams approach us about organizing sports-theme charters and group cruises, and we’ve run the numbers and project a $1.2M profit per voyage.
Interline
Most people don’t know what the word “interline” means, but through our partnership with Twin Fish Interline, we’re able to offer savings of as much as 50% to airline employees, family members, and alumni — a huge, underserved market of more than 3 million travelers
Licensing fees
Depending on our acquiring partner, we can license our technology platform and tools to travel agencies that can’t afford the prohibitively expensive fees of a GDS (Global Distribution System).
SWOT analysis
Strengths
Experience
The founders have a thorough knowledge of the cruise business and deep technical expertise with AI and code bases.
Brand
Cruiseable has established itself as a trustworthy, transparent brand in an age when fly-by-night operators come and go.
Relationships
Management has positive relationships with the cruise lines’ PR departments, C suites, and tech departments.
Agile culture
Change at most travel agencies tends to occur at a glacial pace. In contrast, Agile Travel’s internal culture prizes flexibililty, fast-paced decision-making, and a lean startup mindset without sacrificing the personal touch.
Weaknesses
Resources
The founders have bootstrapped the company but need to bring on additional remote travel agents to achieve scale
Long-term planning
Financial projections are challenging in the near term until marketing and sales have a sturdy foundation to build on top of.
Locked-in habits
Many travelers have an existing way of booking or preferred agency and it will take time to build up a reliable clientele.
Insular luxury lines
Most of our relationships are with the mass market cruise lines, while the luxury lines take years of relationship-building to penetrate.
Opportunities
Use of AI
The team can apply AI in new ways to expand market reach, optimize sales channels, reduce the number of client touchpoints, etc
Expansion
With margins at most agencies so slim, Agile Travel is the perfect vehicle for onboarding more home-based agents who have flexible hours but may not have the expertise across 33 cruise lines and thousands of sailings.
Leverage content
Agile Travel’s wide-ranging Image Library, content database, and ship information can flesh out an existing travel company’s offerings.
Tap into growth verticals
Few companies put together an end-to-end booking package that extends beyond cruises and includes pre- and post-cruise hotel stays and airline flights.
Threats
Exposure to downturns
The cruise sector is resilient but vulnerable to external factors such as pandemics and recessions.
Competitors
Other competitors could arise and build a platform and set of services that performs better than Cruiseable.
AI backlash
There could be a large-scale backlash to any service associated with AI, even if we don’t openly promote the AI aspect of our business.
Cruise line controls
Ultimately, the cruise lines decide whether to continue feeding us the data about their sailings so we need to remain in good stead with them.
Industry Analysis
Robust growth
Cruise is one of the fastest-growing segments in travel. This robust sector growth presents a multimillion-dollar revenue opportunity.
- Current market size is $10 billion, growing to $16.7 billion by 2031 with CAGR of 7.9%.
- 68 new cruise ships are on order from 2023 to 2028 at a cost of $44.2 billion.
Sources: CLIA, Allied Market Research, Cruise Industry News
Financials & Demo
Agile Travel Group is making our P&L Statements and Balance Sheets available to prospective acquiring parties. Please contact our broker, Russell J. Cohen, for the download link.
See IP & Assets for a list of the IP included in the sale. Additional financial information will be furnished during the due diligence process.
To request a private demo of the Cruiseable back end and Content Management System with the founders, please contact broker Russell Cohen.
Representative
Agile Travel Group has begun exploring the sale of the company. For discussions, please contact our broker:
Russell J. Cohen, M&AMI, CBI, CM&AP, CM&AI
President, South Florida M&A Advisors
Website: www.southfloridama.com
Phone
1-954-646-7651 (text or voice)
