OneJourney Advances to WiT Singapore Following Wildcard Win at the Global Startup Pitch Competition
The hospitality payments company was named the Wildcard winner of the 2026 Global Startup Pitch at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona and will now present its SwiftPay platform in Singapore
OneJourney's SwiftPay platform, which automates hotel accounts payable via virtual commercial cards and cashback, will pitch at WiT Singapore after winning the Wildcard at Phocuswright Europe's Global Startup Pitch.
Photo by OneJourney
MIAMI BEACH, FL — OneJourney, an embedded payments and automation platform purpose-built for hospitality, travel and mobility, today announced that Co-Founder and CEO Brian Dass will showcase the company’s SwiftPay platform at WiT Singapore, taking place September 30 to October 2 at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre in Singapore.
OneJourney earned its place at WiT Singapore after being named the Wildcard winner of the 2026 Global Startup Pitch at Phocuswright Europe that took place in Barcelona in June. The prestigious competition, jointly produced by WiT, Phocuswright and PhocusWire, identifies early-stage travel technology companies from around the world. OneJourney was one of eight winners chosen from seventeen finalists who pitched live on the Startup Stage. The SwiftPay platform was selected in the Wildcards category, which recognizes innovative solutions addressing global, future-oriented and next-generation challenges facing the travel industry.
“Winning the Wildcard in Barcelona validated both what we are building and the problem we are solving for hospitality,” said Dass. “Over the past decade, most hotel organizations and properties have invested heavily in technology to optimize revenue and enhance the guest experience, but there is still a great deal of opportunity to modernize and streamline back-of-house processes. We believe that the next frontier for hospitality innovation is in financial operations, and we’re excited to put our solution in front of an international audience, as well as the judges at WiT Singapore.”
Rethinking How Money Moves Through Hospitality
OneJourney’s flagship platform, SwiftPay, effectively addresses the legacy hotel processes that advances in technology have largely left untouched. In many cases, accounts payable still runs on bank transfers, card numbers are manually keyed into supplier portals. and reconciliation is done by hand. None of that work returns anything to the property. SwiftPay replaces it with virtual commercial cards, automated invoice capture and reconciliation, and cashback on eligible spend, and it does so without asking a hotel to change its bank, its systems or its supplier relationships.
SwiftPay is already live with hospitality operators in Europe, and OneJourney’s partnership with DayBlink GPO makes the platform available to a membership of more than 1,100 luxury independent hotels worldwide. The platform has been in commercial use since its first European deployments earlier this year.
From Barcelona to Singapore
Now in its fifth year, the Global Startup Pitch seeks to identify emerging companies developing innovative solutions for travel, tourism and hospitality. Finalists presented their solutions live before a panel of judges from the travel industry’s investment and innovation community at Phocuswright Europe on June 16.
OneJourney stood out in the Wildcards category for tackling a problem every hospitality operator knows well. The category exists for companies that don't fit a neat mold, but deserve a spotlight for solving real, everyday challenges in travel. I'm interested to see how the room in Singapore responds to OneJourney on October 2, during the Global Startup Pitch Showcase.
Yeoh Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT)
OneJourney will now join seven other winning companies on the main stage at WiT Singapore, representing travel technology innovators from North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and emerging markets. Audience voting at WiT Singapore will determine two People’s Choice winners, one Seedup and one Scaleup, who will go on to showcase at The Phocuswright Conference, taking place November 17 to 19 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
For more information about OneJourney and SwiftPay, schedule a meeting with Brian Dass during WiT Singapore, or visit one-journey.com.
About the Global Startup Pitch
The Global Startup Pitch is jointly produced by WiT, Phocuswright and PhocusWire and is designed to identify promising early-stage travel technology companies from around the world. The 2026 competition included companies representing North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and emerging markets, along with a Wildcards category recognizing solutions addressing global and next-generation travel challenges. The competition is supported by American Express Global Business Travel, a Phocuswright Strategic Partner of Innovation.
About OneJourney
OneJourney is an embedded-payments company built for hospitality. Its flagship platform, SwiftPay, helps hotels convert everyday payments to suppliers, vendors and partners into incremental revenue and automated savings, with no cost and no added risk to the property. By combining virtual commercial cards, supplier payment workflows, AI-driven invoice and reconciliation automation, cashback on eligible spend, and transparent reporting, OneJourney gives independent hotels ownership of a payment layer they have historically left to others. OneJourney is operated by Hotel Direct, LLC (d/b/a OneJourney and Swift Services), based in Miami Beach, Florida.
Media Contact
Andrea Mane
SVP, Strategic Marketing [email protected]