SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) 2 led the funding round, which also included Kinnevik and Felix Capital. Greyhound Capital is leading the extension of its $160 million Series D round in April 2021.
Avi Meir, cofounder and CEO, tells Sifted that he expects TravelPerk to be profitable by the end of 2025.
“We have a clear focus: building the number one SaaS business travel platform for [small and medium-size businesses] and mid-tier companies in Europe and the US,”
Avi Meir, cofounder and CEO
AI enhancement
TravelPerk, which employs over 1,200 people, provides a platform for managing business travel, including booking and spending management.
The additional funds will be used to support new business travel services, advance the automation of its platform through AI, and source more transportation and hotel alternatives for users.
“Over the last 18 months we have heavily invested in building our AI-powered travel tech stack, significantly improving user experience as well as the speed and agility of our customer service agents”
Avi Meir
He says that by automating manual operations like flight change requests, TravelPerk has been able to lower customer care costs and enhance efficiencies by 50%.
Meir also intends to accelerate expansion by deepening the localization of TravelPerk’s offering throughout its key geographies.
“In the business of corporate travel, the best product experience means offering the biggest choice of inventory at the best available price,” he says. “We will continue to build on our industry-leading inventory capabilities by opening up better options across air, rail, hotel and car.”
Travel Boom
TravelPerk’s revenues increased by more than 70% year on year in 2023, driven by a 56% increase in foreign business travels to the United States, according to airline booking statistics given by the startup.
The United States was the most popular country for foreign business travels last year, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom, where flight bookings increased by 80% and 73%, respectively.
TravelPerk is strongly focused on the United States, where it bought the Santa Monica-based startup NexTravel two years ago and is now adding more staff.
Meir anticipates the US, where the firm has operations in Boston, Chicago, and Miami, to account for 20-25% of TravelPerk’s growth this year.
Future growth is also likely to come from targeting small and medium-sized businesses, which Stephen Thorne, investment director for SoftBank Investment Advisers and a new member of TravelPerk’s board of directors, describes as a “largely underserved” category of potential clients.
