Skift Take
Travel Tripper is taking on a distressed asset, Pegasus. Meh. But what's interesting is that Accel-KKR is backing the deal. The support by the private equity firm is yet another sign of more rollups of hotel tech companies to come against a backdrop of hotel software investments by Amadeus, Sabre, and Shiji.
Accel-KKR, a U.S. private equity firm, is betting on growth in hotel technology by underwriting the merger of two hospitality technology providers: Travel Tripper and Pegasus.
The companies didn't disclose the terms of the deal, revealed to Skift on Monday, or how much they had previously raised on their own. No investor has a controlling share of the combined entity, said Gautam Lulla, president of Travel Tripper and the new entity.
After the companies fully merge, one of the brands may disappear. Together, they serve about 5,500 hotels and touch approximately 16 million bookings a year. Central reservation systems, a product provided by both companies, sit at the center of a lot of data and revenue generation for hotels.
"Pegasus has always been strong at distribution-facing connectivity," said George Roukas, a partner at consultancy Hudson Crossing. "Travel Tripper has done a terrific job at building a booking engine that converts very well on brand.com sites, and they've got good customer service, and their demand generation capabilities are coming along nicely."
Both Travel Tripper and Pegasus offer a central reservation system (CRS) for hotels. They will merge the systems, Lulla said.
"Travel Tripper has offerings in hotel marketing, web design, booking engines, and customer reservations systems," said Skift Research senior analyst Seth Borko. "That means it can handle, and collect data on, almost the full life cycle of a prospective direct customer."
Accel-KKR grew out of a joint venture between well-known venture investor Accel and private-equity firm KKR. It's now independent, with about 10 percent backing by Goldman Sachs. It typically invests in midmarket software services businesses. It has rarely invested in the travel sector, except for a 2016 strategic investment in Cendyn, a customer relationship management provider for 30,000 hotels.
A Season of Hotel Tech Rollups
Accel-KKR joins other firms betting on roll-ups of tech companies into lar
