HomeFundingBarcelona-based SaaS startup TravelPerk raises €17 million to fix business travel

Barcelona-based SaaS startup TravelPerk raises €17 million to fix business travel

TravelPerk, the next-generation business travel booking and management platform for companies of any size, announces today that it has raised €17 million in a Series B round led by Berlin-based Target Global and London’s Felix Capital. Amplo, and earlier investors like Spark Capital and Sunstone also participated in the funding round.

Founded in 2015 by CEO Avi Meir and CPO Javier Suarez, TravelPerk is at the forefront of reinventing business travel – a category that is worth over $1.2 trillion globally. Surging demand has resulted in TravelPerk being ranked the fastest-growing SaaS company in Europe – and the fourth fastest-growing globally – on the SaaS 1000 list.

The Barcelona-based company, whose team has increased from 20 to around 100 over the past year, has grown revenue at a rate of 1,200% year-on-year and now counts a raft of over 1,000 customers — including celebrated high growth companies such as Typeform, TransferWise, Outfittery, GetYourGuide, GoCardless, Hotjar, and CityJet – among its clients.

Rather than simply focusing on niche features, TravelPerk – which is free to use – doubled-down on infrastructure, building out an end-to-end business travel platform on which clients can search flights and hotels, book and pay for them (including prepay for any hotel worldwide), manage their itineraries, receive instant invoices, have full control of their travel preferences and loyalty programs, automate their travel policy, access their travel data and rely on 24/7, multilingual support – all in one place.

TravelPerk has built the world’s largest bookable inventory by integrating not only with hotels, airlines, and rail companies, but also with all the major leisure travel sites including Booking.com, Expedia, Skyscanner and Airbnb, offering users the richness and variety of consumer travel options combined with a business-ready experience. By offering free customer support, and taking no client commissions, the company saves its customers over 20% in annual business travel costs compared to legacy corporate tools and travel agents.

TravelPerk CEO Avi Meir, who sold his previous company to Booking.com, stated: “Almost everyone you speak to, who has traveled for work, has personal experience of how painful business travel can be. Until now, businesses had to choose between two bad options: either antiquated enterprise solutions or an alphabet soup of ad hoc consumer tools. We went back to first principles instead to design the world’s best experience for travelers, business administrators and finance managers, alike.”

Antoine Nussenbaum, Partner at Felix Capital, commented: “The corporate travel industry is one of the largest global markets yet to be disrupted online. With a seasoned and highly ambitious management team combining all the skills required to build both a top class tech stack and a smooth consumer experience for travelers through personalisation and mobile, TravelPerk are ideally positioned to be the global leaders in the space.”

The Series B investment – which brings the total raised by TravelPerk to $30 million – will be used to rapidly scale all facets of the business. The company will add software engineers, product owners, sales reps and customer support to its team, which is set to double to around 200 people, as well as expand globally with offices in 3-5 new countries by 2019.

Target Global General Partner Shmuel Chafets adds: “TravelPerk is very well positioned to be a market leader in the business travel space with a product that makes business travel as seamless and easy as personal travel, thereby winning a highly fragmented trillion dollar market – a key investment thesis of Target Global. TravelPerk is our first investment in Barcelona. We believe in a pan-European startup ecosystem and we look forward to seeing more opportunities in this emerging startup hub.”

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Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr is the "Editor in Chief" of EU-Startups.com and started the blog in October 2010. He is excited about Europe's future, passionate about new business ideas and lives in Barcelona (Spain).
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