Upside’s Big Valuation Shows Hunger for Biz Travel Tech — Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report


Skift Take

Travelers get free gift cards, and companies save money on their travel spend. Tweaking traveler behavior through incentives isn't new to the corporate travel space, but investors seem to have finally noticed its potential.

The Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter focused on the future of corporate travel, the big fault lines of disruption for travel managers and buyers, the innovations emerging from the sector, and the changing business traveler habits that are upending how corporate travel is packaged, bought, and sold. SUBSCRIBE HERE FOR WEEKLY UPDATES THE FUTURE OF CORPORATE + BUSINESS TRAVEL The big news in corporate travel this week is a huge funding round for Priceline co-founder Jay Walker's new business travel venture Upside, and everyone in the corporate travel ecosystem should be paying attention. Upside, which rewards business travelers with gift cards for making bookings that save their companies money, raised $50 million at a $200 million valuation, showing that major travel and technology are taking the company seriously. “We’re going straight for the unmanaged business traveler,” said Walker when the company was announced last summer. “