TripActions Raises $155 Million To Boost Travel Spend Management

TripActions, a travel management company, has raised $155 million in a Series E funding round at an increased valuation of $5 billion, intending to help the travel world with a new travel and spend management program, the company announced in a Thursday (Jan. 21) blog post.

The round was led by existing investor Andreessen Horowitz; Addition Ventures, founded by Lee Fixel; and investor Elad Gil. Participation came from existing investors Zeev Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Greenoaks Capital.

The blog post notes TripActions has seen the adversity of the pandemic from 2020 and is prepared to re-enter business in a changed world.

The company says it’s spent the past year focusing on building new product capabilities, which will focus on customer safety, driving cost saving and managing global T&E programs, the release says.

TripActions says it has launched numerous new technologies to help with the changing world, including a new COVID-19 dashboard, a new spend analysis dashboard, better travel safety reporting, automated unused ticket technology and more, per the announcement.

Ariel Cohen, CEO of TripActions, was part of a PYMNTS panel last year, in which he said the company had been hit hard by the pandemic as many had, with travel coming to a near-stop. But as other types of companies needed expense management, he said TripAction had managed to find new life. He said he’d “never met” a person who liked the process.

And with workforces operating from home for much of the time recently, Cohen said the importance of monitoring and approving spend has taken on a new level of importance.

Cohen said his company had recently rolled out a new digital payments function, allowing for credit products attached to expense management solutions, handled via a verification prompt when employees make purchases on corporate cards.

In addition, TripAction’s unified dashboard was a help for companies working from home with its expense management for things like software or entertainment, Cohen said.