- Global travel management platform TravelPerk announced it has raised $160 million in Series D equity and debt funding. These are the details.
TravelPerk — the largest and fastest-growing global travel management platform — announced it has raised $160 million in Series D equity and debt funding to fuel the next phase of its rapid global growth. This round was led by Greyhound Capital with participation from existing investors and it brings the total investment raised to date to $294 million.
This funding round will be used to accelerate TravelPerk’s mission to create the world’s best travel platform with a particular focus on growth in the US and Europe and on product innovations designed for the changing needs of travelers and small-medium-sized businesses post-pandemic. And the global impact of COVID-19 means that flexibility, safety, and sustainability are more important than ever within business travel. And TravelPerk will be focused on enhancing its offerings in these areas, through innovation and acquisitions. Plus TravelPerk is also hiring heavily and after not making any layoffs during the pandemic, it expects to rapidly grow its 500-person team as the travel market grows through late 2021 and 2022.
TravelPerk is combining the best of business and leisure travel to provide its customers with the world’s best travel platform for booking, managing, and reporting business trips, using its proprietary technology and 24/7 traveler support. And the TravelPerk platform hosts the world’s largest bookable travel inventory, allowing travelers to seamlessly compare, book, and invoice trains, cars, flights, hotels, and apartments from a range of providers such as Kayak, Skyscanner, Expedia, Booking.com, and Airbnb. Plus this offers business travelers unparalleled freedom and flexibility while providing companies with control over their travel spend.
The Series D is considered another milestone for TravelPerk after a year that has seen the company develop and release a range of new solutions for travel in a COVID and post-COVID world. And this includes TravelSafe, TravelPerk’s first product for the wider travel industry, which made TravelPerk’s real-time data on the latest COVID travel restrictions available through an API. And the company also completed its first-ever acquisitions, acquiring risk management startup Albatross in 2020, and US-based competitor NexTravel in January 2021, cementing the company’s position as an industry leader and significantly expanding its US presence. Plus TravelPerk also continued to improve and future-proof existing products like FlexiPerk, the industry-first flexible booking tool that manages last-minute cancellations and guarantees 80% of the trip refunded.
KEY QUOTES:
“There will always be a need for business travel. But the events of the last year have fundamentally changed businesses’ expectations and preferences. Over the last 12 months, we’ve been constantly innovating to address the changing needs for travelers navigating the complex travel environment during COVID, and kept growing as a company during one of the worst crises the industry has ever seen – doubling our travel budget under management in this period.”
“We are very confident in the return of business travel this year, and this investment will allow us to accelerate our ambitious growth plan in crucial markets like the US and Europe and deliver on travelers’ changing priorities as safety, sustainability and greater flexibility become essential requirements for all travel.”
— Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of TravelPerk
“There is no doubt that from 2021 onwards the average business trip will look very different to how it did in 2019. We are confident that business travel will recover and thrive in the years ahead. We also believe that people will, more than ever before, need a platform like TravelPerk that has deep inventory, excellent ‘seven-star’ customer service, provides a great traveler experience, and integrates with the broader tech-stack.”
“We believe that this is a huge long-term opportunity, and as customers ourselves, we see first-hand the tremendous value that TravelPerk provides across organizations, from finance to admin and the travelers themselves. The fact the company is beating growth expectations already for this year further supports our belief that TravelPerk is a true market leader, and we are delighted to be supporting the next stage of the company’s growth with this investment.”
— Pogos Saiadian, investor at Greyhound Capital
