Barcelona-based TravelPerk already was gaining ground in the U.S. when co-founder and CEO Avi Meir slammed the accelerator this year with the acquisition of Chicago-based travel management company AmTrav.
The acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, doubled TravelPerk's U.S. revenues, which had grown 65 percent year over year in 2023. It also brought TravelPerk new offices in Boston, Los Angeles and Miami in addition to AmTrav's Chicago headquarters.
Similar to TravelPerk's acquisition of U.K.-based travel management company Click Travel—which contributed to Meir being named to this list in 2021—TravelPerk plans to keep AmTrav independent in the company, keeping its booking tool and team, and the AmTrav name is staying as well. The two companies, which AmTrav CEO Jeff Klee referred to as "kindred spirits" with a focus on both software and service, stand to boost each other's growth.
For AmTrav, being a part of TravelPerk allows it to serve companies with large international operations and multiple currency needs, which it was not able to before, as well as offer new products. For TravelPerk, it is a chance to "supercharge our growth in the U.S. and around the world," Meir said at the time of the acquisition.
TravelPerk also has significantly boosted its access to capital this year. Alongside the AmTrav acquisition, TravelPerk announced a new credit facility of up to $135 million, backed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance and Blue Owl Credit, and at the beginning of the year, it announced a $104 million funding round led by Japanese technology investment firm SoftBank.
The company this year passed the $200 million threshold in in annualized revenue, about a quarter of which is from the United States. TravelPerk president and COO Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo in an interview with tech-industry-focused publication The Information said the company aims to increase that to 50 percent within the next five years.