Rocketrip, a platform for corporate travel which rewards travellers for making savings, has raised $15 million in Series C funding.
The round is led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) while existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Canaan Partners also participated.
This latest funding brings the total raised to $32 million following its Series B of $9 million in mid-2016 and Series A in 2014.
Rocketrip was founded in 2013 (Startup pitch here) with the aim of reducing some of the pain of business travel management.
The company says it helps its corporate clients save an average of $208 per business trip by predicting the cost of travel and giving travellers part of the savings when they book a lower priced trip.
Erik Nordlander, partner at GV, who joins the Rocketrip board, says:
“We were drawn to invest in Rocketrip because it has demonstrated significant savings for its growing customer base, rewarding employees when they book business travel in a more cost-effective way."
A statement regarding the funding says it will be support innovation in "new solutions for managed travel programs" as well as help Rocketrip build its enterprise sales team.
Global business travel spending is predicted to hit $1.6 trillion by 2020, up from $1.3 trillion in 2016.
Legacy technology and inefficient travel booking and expense processes combined with a better user-experience in leisure travel is driving old and new players to look at how the corporate travel journey might be improved.
A number of startups have emerged in corporate travel in the past couple of years including Rocketrip, Upside, Travelbank, TravelPerk, Comtravo and Travo.
TravelPerk is fresh from its own Series B funding with $21 million raised earlier this month to "fix business travel".
The Barcelona-based company switched focus recently from incentivising travellers to concentrate on developing a full booking platform for business travel combining leisure and corporate inventory, a consumer booking experience and 24/7 traveller support.
Talking to tnooz recently about startups in the space and the investor interest in corporate travel, TravelPerk's VP of marketing Gidi Pridor described it as the "biggest unsolved market" in terms of the technology. He says:
"The vast majority of companies are not satisfied with how they book travel. That pain calculates into a huge opportunity. [The investment] shows this market is ready for disruption now."
Related reading:
Amex GBT's Evan Konwiser talks startups and how corporate travel is evolving
Lola brings out Works, talks 2018 and trends in corporate travel
Podcast: Dan Ruch from Rocketrip on gamification, corporate travel, and his founder's journey