Montreal’s rising travel tech company Stay22 is building out its leadership team as it enters its next stage of growth. The company announced two major additions to its executive team, Fabien Loupy as Chief Technology Officer and Louis-Charles Genest as Chief Financial Officer, along with the promotion of Hamad Al-Khabbaz to the newly created role of Chief Innovation Officer.
Founded in 2016, Stay22 has carved out a unique niche in the affiliate commerce space, using artificial intelligence and machine learning to connect online travel content creators such as bloggers and media publishers with travel sellers like Booking.com and Expedia. The platform helps creators monetize their content while driving incremental, high-margin bookings for travel sellers. In 2024 alone, Stay22 powered more than one million trips across 226 countries, reaching $500 million in Gross Merchandise Value and $25 million in revenue.
Now approaching its tenth anniversary and surpassing $1 billion in annual transactions, the Montreal-based startup is signaling ambitions beyond travel.
“This marks a turning point for Stay22,” said Andrew Lockhead, Co-founder and CEO. “As we scale beyond travel, Louis-Charles and Fabien bring the operational excellence and technical depth needed to sustain our next wave of growth. Their experience will help us double down on innovation while keeping the culture that got us here.”
Loupy joins Stay22 after serving as VP of Technology at SSENSE, where he led a period of remarkable growth, helping the global e-commerce platform surpass $1 billion in sales across more than 100 countries. He scaled the engineering team from 40 to 270 and spearheaded the launch of a mobile app that generated hundreds of millions in revenue.
“I am impressed by Stay22’s resilience and the impact its products have created for content creators since it was founded nine years ago,” said Fabien Loupy, the new CTO. “Among my goals will be helping the company reach its targets more efficiently as we expand our affiliate program to additional verticals.”
On the financial side, Louis-Charles Genest brings deep expertise in scaling operations and executing mergers and acquisitions. At District M, he helped multiply annual revenue eightfold and grew the team tenfold before overseeing a merger with Sharethrough and its post-integration.
“It is a pleasure to join such a great team as Stay22,” said Genest. “As CFO, I will support the company’s growth and further professionalize its finance and administrative functions.”
Meanwhile, Hamad Al-Khabbaz, who co-founded Stay22 and previously served as CTO, transitions into the new role of Chief Innovation Officer, focusing on developing new initiatives and driving the company’s long-term innovation strategy.
Following record results in the first half of 2025, Stay22 is preparing to expand into new verticals beyond travel, offering fresh revenue opportunities for its 4,485 active partners. To support this growth, the company recently moved into a larger Montreal office and expects to surpass 100 employees by year’s end.
With a strengthened leadership team and a growing global footprint, Stay22 appears poised to enter its next decade as one of Canada’s rising players in affiliate commerce and travel tech innovation.
