Earlier this year, I shared that we had partnered with the TripActions team to join in their journey to modernize Business Travel. Today, we are even more excited to share that we have led an additional $12.5M financing to close out the company’s Series A. Concurrent with this financing, I have joined the company’s Board of Directors.
The company was founded based off a simple observation: that employees don’t treat business travel the same way they treat their personal travel. Cost is less of an issue than convenience when booking business travel, for the basic reason that you don’t have to reach into your own wallet to pay for your business travel. TripActions has changed its customers’ behavior by presenting business travelers more cost-effective flights and hotels and awarding meaningful rewards – such as a $100 Amazon gift card – for selecting a more cost-effective option.
Like many great products, the founders’ observation served as the basis for a broader platform. What started as a mission to incentivize employees to choose more affordable travel has evolved into a comprehensive, modern business travel booking platform to tackle the $1.3 Trillion global business travel industry. TripActions now offers its customers an end-to-end travel management solution that uses cutting-edge technology (such as machine learning, cloud computing and natural language processing) and world-class customer service to save companies money and empower employees with abundant choice and genuinely helpful support while on the road.
The past year has seen incredible progress. TripActions has grown travel budget under management by 18x, supporting hundreds of companies including Box, OpenGov and Bowers & Wilkins. TripActions’ growing (and happy) customer base consistently saves 27% annually on business travel costs. And their employees love the product. Additionally, TripActions has signed global partnerships with Expedia and Priceline in order to deliver even more choice and access to extraordinary discounts when booking travel, building upon their existing relationship with Sabre and adding to their broad inventory.
As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, this is our second time working with the founders, Ariel Cohen and Ilan Twig. At Lightspeed, we’re extremely excited about our partnership with the TripActions team as they rethink the Business Travel Management space and bring the power of machine learning, cloud computing and modern mobile-interfaces to business travelers. For more information on TripActions, visit www.tripactions.com
Arif Janmohamed is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. He lends significant cloud, mobile and analytics expertise to the TripActions team. In his free time, Arif plays ice hockey with his wife, who yells at him for never passing the puck to her.
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