Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of Travelperk.
Travelperk
The corporate travel platform Travelperk has raised $200 million in a $2.7 billion funding round from investors, including Atomico and EQT, the company told CNBC.
The new funding will double TravelPerk’s market value from January 2024, when it raised $104 million from January 2024. NoteUS partners also participated in this latest investment round.
In addition to the funding round, the Barcelona-based startup has revealed it has acquired Swiss spending management platform Yokoy.
As a result of the acquisition, Yokoy Investor Sequoia Capital will join Travelperk’s cap table along with existing investor General Catalyst Kinnevik. Softbank Vision Fund and Black Stone.
Travelperk said fresh cash will be used to accelerate growth, fuel expansion in the US market, and investments in products, technologies and artificial intelligence.
From $2.7 billion to hard work from Covid
Travelperk President and Chief Operating Officer Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo said CNBC venture capitalist was drawn to the company’s growth story after rebelling from the times of struggle they faced during the Covid-19 pandemic .
Travelperk has halted most travel in 2020 and 2021 with revenue dropping rapidly. According to Taunay-Bucalo, revenues have since increased to about five times the size before Covid hit.
“Why we’re doing so well now is because there was a period when you had to be strong. You had to have a good foundation, so you have to be crude That was it,” he said.
Hilary Ball, a partner focused on Atomico’s growth, said the company was drawn to investing in Travelperk as it focuses on corporate travel.
“This is a market that has been revived following the pandemic,” Ball told CNBC. “In the past year, the global value of corporate travel has been $1.5 trillion, an increase of 6% compared to pre-pandemic and 2019. This is the market where you will stay here and is growing. It’s obviously a market.”
Corporate travel is a “huge area of spending” for businesses, she added.
Last year, Travelperk raised $104 million in venture capital from SoftBank and others to increase investments in AI technology and product development.
Later that year, the company subsequently raised an additional $135 million in debt financing and acquired Chicago-based corporate travel booking software company Amtrav to help expand in the US market.
The company then raised an additional $135 million in debt financing and in June acquired Chicago-based corporate travel booking software company Amtrav, helping to expand in the US market.
“I think this is a very big market. We sized it at about $220 million between the US and Europe, directly addressable markets, between small and medium sized businesses and medium sized,” told CNBC. Ta.
“We think about half of that $20 billion is under management. So you and I will go to Expedia for a flight at the company that goes to Booking.com for hotels. This is a very fragmented and disjointed experience.
Despite reaching a size of over 1,500 employees and a valuation of $2.7 billion, Taunay-Bucalo says Travelperk is not in a hurry to an IPO, focusing primarily on keeping customers happy. Masu.
“There’s no plans in the short term,” he said. “We want to be here in 100 years… We have this almost unusually long-term view for high-tech companies. As a result, the way we see the world is a little different. We don’t want to do it. Do these quick things before you leave.”
I’m not worried about ai ‘agents’
Taunay-Bucalo said Travelperk will invest in AI to enhance its product offerings and the acquisition of Yokoy will bring about a “very strong AI team.”
Yokoi’s chief technology officer, Davis Russi, previously worked at the Institute of Particle Physics in Switzerland and France.
Travelperk’s technology chief is not interested in the emergence of so-called “agent” AI. This refers to a system in which people can carry out actions on their behalf, rather than relying on prompts.
Last week, Openai released an Operator, an AI agent that can perform tasks such as planning vacations and booking restaurants on behalf of users.
“The reality is that things don’t change overnight,” Tauna Bucaro said.
“Everything we see is happening, we test it,” he added. “We’re going to test it. We’ll release it. If it works, we’ll hold it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll kill it.”
