Four months after signing a major partnership with American Express Global Business Travel, travel management startup Lola has secured $37 million in funding to double its employee count and ramp up tech development.
The Series C funding round was comprised of existing Lola investors, led by General Catalyst and Accel, with participation from CRV, Tenaya Capital and GV. The financing brings Lola's total funding since its launch in 2016 to nearly $80 million.
Started by Kayak co-founder Paul English, Lola pivoted away from leisure travel in 2017 to target the lightly managed corporate travel sector. Its five-year partnership with Amex GBT is expected to drive growth, and Lola plans to double its headcount across engineering, sales, and marketing, including hiring more than 60 hires this year.
Lola also will focus on tech development. English has said the company is building out its software offerings to better serve larger corporate clients—and that learning how to serve those clients was a major element of its decision to align with Amex GBT.