Online Business Travel Platforms See Consolidation, New Funding
Photo Credit: Startups want to make the booking process for corporate travel feel as seamless as that of leisure travel. Flickr / Robert Couse-Baker
Skift Take
Business travel has all but stopped, but not the dealmaking, judging from these recent announcements.
January has seen a flurry of financial investments for the corporate travel sector.
Several technology companies have revealed funding rounds this month, and rather than the cash propping them up to survive, they're being regarded more as a vote of confidence in better times ahead.
While business travelers remain static, these startups are gearing up for recovery and ready to play a role in helping organizations lower their costs in the future.
At a Glance
On Wednesday, Barcelona-based startup TravelPerk announced it had acquired U.S. business travel platform NexTravel, signalling its intention to expand stateside.
Santa Monica-based NexTravel was founded in 2013 by Wen-Wen Lam and Alexey Pakhomov, and launched out of the Y Combinator accelerator program in 2015. It has 700 global clients, including Yelp, Stripe and Harry’s.
NexTravel is TravelPerk’s second, and largest, acquisition to date, following risk management startup Albatross in July 2020. With eyes on the re
