TripActions has raised $250 million in a Series D funding
round that brings the tech-forward travel management company's total valuation
to a whopping $4 billion. Led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from
existing investors Zeev Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Group 11, formerly
SGVC, the funding will fuel TripAction's growth. Perhaps more significantly,
the massive money jolt serves as the biggest signal yet that the company is aiming
to become a major player in the managed travel ecosystem.
The latest funding comes just seven months after TripActions
landed $154 million, in November 2018. Overall, the company has raised nearly
half a billion dollars in investor financing since its founding in 2015. As if
that amount of capital weren't enough to make the TMC establishment take
notice, TripActions co-founder and CEO Ariel Cohen has made no secret of the
company's plans to take a major bite out of the managed travel market. "We
were never shy in our ambition, and we see ourselves as becoming the default
partners for corporations looking for managed travel," Cohen said,
characterizing the funding as "a way to tell the market that we are here
and are going to do what it takes to compete."
Indeed, TripActions has yet even to deploy much of its Series
C capital. "We've barely touched it," Cohen said.
Instead, the company has leveraged its tech platform to
scale up in both number and size of clients without hiring additional agents.
That's thanks to the platform's artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities,
which enable the vast majority of travelers to book and manage trips without
going through an agent. And in cases for which agent support is necessary, a
purpose-built dashboard gives agents the relevant information to serve the
particular traveler quickly and efficiently, Cohen noted. "Our entire
business model is different than established TMCs, and that's what enables us
to be efficient."
As far as where the company will spend those investment
dollars, Cohen cited global expansion. TripActions plans to continue to add new
offices to support enterprise clients with global support needs. The company
recently opened a Sydney office to serve Australia, where it has lined up
several initial client corporations, Cohen said.
TripActions also has partnered with Namely, an HR management platform for midsize companies. Clients can connect their employee data from Namely into TripActions to simplify onboarding. The integration streamlines travel policy management and approvals for global HR leaders and travel managers, TripActions said.