As travel management providers continue navigating stiff headwinds amid the ongoing shutdown of corporate travel, TripActions has added another $125 million in financing to its coffers to help the company wait out the storm.
Led by Greenoaks Capital with participation from Vista Credit Partners, the financing is convertible to equity if and when TripActions undertakes an initial public offering, with "the value and timing of the IPO [to] determine the conversion rate into equity," according to a TripActions spokesperson.
The latest $125 million infusion gives TripActions a total of $350 million in reserve, according to TripActions CEO Ariel Cohen—funds he said will be used to "weather Covid-19 while accelerating our investment in R&D and expanding enterprise sales."
With the Covid-19 pandemic clamping a stranglehold on the business travel sector, the prospect of any travel management provider going the IPO route anytime soon seems slim. TripActions laid off nearly 300 employees in March after corporate travel screeched to a near-standstill in mid-March.
But TripActions since has reported signs that its clients' travel activity is beginning to pick up, with total bookings increasing weekly for the past nine weeks and client surveys showing a steady increase in travelers' comfort with making trips, the company said.
In the meantime, TripActions continues expanding its client base, claiming 265 new companies over the past three months, including three large enterprise customers, and doubling down on its Liquid payment card, signing up nearly 30 new clients for that product over the same period, the company said. TripActions also has bolstered its core platform, recently launching a Covid-19 tracker and adding supplier safety procedure information to its booking tool, along with a service to automatically manage and apply fee waivers stemming from unused air tickets.
TripActions also this week hired former Harness vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa Christopher Vik to head up its European sales operations, touting Vik's track record of leading the growth of U.S.-based tech companies in Europe—a market where TripActions is emphasizing expansion efforts.