Meet Christian Møller-Holst, CEO and Founder of Travel Management System: Goodwings

Tell us about Goodwings

 
Goodwings is a sustainable travel management system that helps businesses reduce their carbon emissions. Companies can use Goodwings just like they would any other travel management platform – as a tool to book hotels, flights, trains and rental cars, except there’s one key difference. Every booking contributes to reducing the climate impact that’s generated from the trip.

The way it works is that we transfer the commissions from every booking (which would otherwise be used for profit) into your “Climate Account”, which can then be used to finance Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and other projects to reduce and offset your carbon emissions. For most companies, travel is still a necessary part of doing business, even if COVID has changed how often those trips take place, so having a tool that can reduce emissions in an easy and affordable way makes sure that companies can take responsibility for their carbon footprint while they travel.
 

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

It’s that we’ve built our business on a model that doesn’t rely on travel commissions to be profitable, which goes against the norms of the travel industry. In short, we’ve got nothing to gain from businesses traveling – in fact, we’d rather they didn’t! But by decoupling our profits from how much our clients travel, we can be laser focussed on funding climate solutions like Sustainable Aviation Fuel, to help the aviation sector become a force for good.

It’s no secret that governments are stretched, which puts more pressure on businesses to do their part in the fight against climate change. There’s also a growing demand for businesses to reduce and report their emissions in line with EU climate laws. So, offering a solution that allows them to calculate their emissions, reduce them at no extra cost and get all the data they need for reporting is truly a unique contribution in today’s climate-conscious market.
 

How has the company evolved in 2023?

2023 has been a pivotal year for Goodwings. We closed a late seed funding round just before the summer, tripled our headcount and secured some big hitters from the worlds of tech, marketing and sales to develop our product and go-to-market strategy. We’ve also benefited from two key strategic partnerships this year – one with JTB – one of the world’s biggest travel agents, which is helping us deliver an even more streamlined service to our customers, and another with SQUAKE and Neste – two companies that are helping to accelerate the green transition in the aviation sector.

There’s so much momentum behind the Goodwings brand, and dedicated people working hard to take it to the next level. The timing also feels spot on. Two years ago, there just wasn’t the awareness that there is today among business leaders. So, we’re optimistic about what lies ahead, and that we can continue to expand our global footprint, and do even more to decarbonize the travel industry.

What can we hope to see from Goodwings in the future?

More of everything. In the last 3 months we’ve transitioned from a hotel only platform, to a full feature travel management system offering hotels, flights, trains and rental cars on top of a full suite of sustainability features. The next few months will see us further accelerate every part of the business – continue to grow the team, build new product features, secure more strategic partnerships, and develop our suite of quality climate projects. We want to get to a place where Goodwings is the default option for business travelers, because we know that the more we are, the more we can achieve.