SMB Travel Platform TravelPerk Raises $115M

TravelPerk, a European travel management company, has raised $115 million in a new funding round, bringing the value of the startup to $1.3 billion. 

According to a Tuesday (Jan. 11) blog post from the Barcelona- and London-based company, TravelPerk will use the funding to expand its small- to medium-sized business focused offering as corporate travel resumes. The firm has raised $409 million to date. 

TravelPerk CEO Avi Meir said in a Bloomberg interview that revenue has exceeded pre-COVID levels as pandemic restrictions ease, with smaller companies getting back to traveling faster than bigger firms, which have to deal with more complexities.

“We’re definitely out of the pandemic,” Meir said.

Because TravelPerk didn’t lay off its workers — despite flagging sales during the lockdown — the company says it has been able to quickly respond to rising demand, as it didn’t need to rehire its sales team.  

In fact, the company grew during the pandemic, acquiring Click Travel, a U.K.-based service that specializes in corporate domestic travel.  

Read more: Spain’s TravelPerk Snaps Up UK’s Click Travel 

That deal positioned TravelPerk as the largest SMB-focused travel management platform globally as well as the dominant business travel platform in the U.K. Click Travel handles business travel for more than 2,000 SMB clients. 

TravelPerk plans to use the new funding to expand its sustainable travel solutions and help its business teams plot out in-person meetings, while also working to venture into new markets, including the U.S. and Europe. 

See also: Business Travel Unlikely to See 2019 Levels Again Until 2024 — If Ever 

During the pandemic, global business travel spending fell from $1.4 trillion in 2019 to $661 billion in 2020, as offices cleared out and many employees began working from home. 

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the travel industry is expected to improve in 2022, with a full rebound anticipated in 2024.