TripActions has launched a payment card designed to work directly with its travel management platform, according to the company. Dubbed TripActions Liquid, the new product features a virtual card for such pay-ahead bookings as flights, as well as a Visa-branded plastic credit card for expenses incurred by business travelers during trips.
Features include the ability to set trip budgets and spending parameters for specific merchant categories, with real-time policy-based approval decisions. Meanwhile, details of purchases made with Liquid are tracked and stored automatically, eliminating the need for travelers to keep or take photos of receipts. Those expenses subsequently can be sent to the expense management system of a company's choice for reimbursement.
While Liquid could appeal to smaller companies with employees who rely on personal credit cards to fund travel expenses, TripActions CEO Ariel Cohen said the company is positioning the product as an alternative to traditional, bank-issued corporate credit cards for larger clients—touting Liquid's spending controls and integrated reporting as an advantage over such legacy products.
"We see Liquid as a card that replaces a corporate card for companies that already have one," Cohen said. "Corporate card providers don't offer real spending control in real time. You can give your employees a [traditional corporate] credit card, but you will lose control of the spend." He added that such lack of spending control often is a bigger issue for larger companies than for smaller ones.
To further sweeten the pot for corporate buyers, TripActions is offering 1.5 percent cash back to companies on all spend occurring via Liquid and will be "adding additional rewards" in the future, Cohen said.
A beta version of Liquid already has been piloted by TripActions client companies including Lyft, Letgo and Zoom. To support the launch, the company has raised a debt facility of up to $500 million with Silicon Valley Bank, Goldman Sachs and Comerica Bank.
Liquid is TripActions' second foray into corporate payments, following its late 2018 alliance with payments and expense startup Divvy. However, that partnership thus far has been more focused on bringing TripActions' travel management services to Divvy's existing payment and expense clients.