How Qualifast Helped Build

the Colibra Travel App

Only a few weeks after securing initial funding, the team decided to pursue a completely different product direction. The original idea focused on a blockchain-based network for resolving travel insurance claims through distributed voting. However, the team identified a far stronger opportunity by leveraging EU passenger rights legislation (Regulation EC 261/2004), which legally guarantees compensation of up to €600 for flights delayed by more than three hours.

Democratizing EU Flight Claims via Micro-Compensation

Recognizing that 3+ hour delays are low-probability events, Colibra introduced a novel micro-compensation model to capture an untapped market: monetizing and redistributing claims for shorter delays (1 to 2 hours) where no standard legal coverage exists. Passengers used the Colibra mobile application to forfeit their legal rights to any potential 3-hour claim, transferring those rights directly to Colibra. In exchange, Colibra guaranteed them smaller, instant payouts for delays starting at just 60 minutes. By pooling these large claims into a shared payout engine, Colibra effectively distributed “the big bag of money” across a much broader user base.

Rebuilding the Architecture for Viral Growth

For most passengers, receiving automated compensation for a 1-hour delay felt like a “money out of thin air” experience. Since no competing platform offered micro-payouts for minor delays, the product triggered immediate viral word-of-mouth adoption across European airports. Executing this strategic pivot required Qualifast to completely rebuild the product architecture from scratch. Technical operations shifted entirely toward deep aviation industry integration, real-time flight tracking APIs, automated claim-transfer workflows, and a high-concurrency mobile app built for frictionless onboarding.

Within a few months the new product was implemented and launched.

The platform consisted of:

The product followed slick user interface designs prepared by Colibra’s in-house design team. After launch, the application quickly gained traction.

The mobile apps were downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, with some days seeing several thousand installs.

The strong user response validated the product concept and confirmed the market demand.

As the product grew, the Qualifast team became increasingly confident in both the product and the founding team.

Based on this belief, Qualifast decided to take an unusual step for a development partner: we invested in the startup.

Instead of traditional project payments, we agreed to work partly in exchange for equity, becoming shareholders in the business.

This was the first investment of this type made by Qualifast, demonstrating our long-term commitment to building successful startup products.

The COVID pandemic had a major impact on the aviation industry.

As flights were grounded worldwide, EU legislation compensating delayed flights was temporarily removed, which broke the original business model of the application.

The product pivoted again.

Colibra transformed into a travel booking application, allowing users to book flights with built-in protection against cancellations and delays.

The system used actuarial models to determine pricing and risk, effectively embedding flight insurance into the booking price.

The long-term vision expanded to include:

Qualifast partners with founders to design, build, and scale digital products.

Our team helps startups:

From early proof-of-concept prototypes to platforms with hundreds of thousands of users, we help startups turn ideas into real products.