Travel and spend management platform Engine has acquired corporate travel management company (TMC) Options Travel.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. In a blog post, Engine founder and CEO Elia Wallen said the company is also adding group-flights product TempoTrip, which Options Travel built in 2018.
Engine and Options Travel started working together nine months ago, with Engine now developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-native online booking tool (OBT) for TMCs.
“Engine is on a mission to power the future of travel, and TMCs are the relationship experts at the center of the industry,” Wallen said.
“The technology behind them hasn't kept up. Working with Options Travel showed us exactly where it falls short. TMCs deserve modern technology behind them, and that's what we're here to bring.”
The new OBT is aimed at improving booking speed and personalization and automating disruption handling, Wallen wrote in the blog post. It will also handle payments, reporting, customer management and duty of care and provide a consolidated dashboard for client information. Engine is demoing the tool at the Global Business Travel Association Convention in Chicago next week.
Colorado-based Engine offers two products: travel booking platform Engine Travel and spend management platform Engine Spend. In September 2024, the company, then known as Hotel Engine, raised $140 million in a Series C growth investment led by Permira Growth Opportunities II. The following month, it rebranded as Engine.
Options Travel, headquartered in Mount Prospect, Illinois, was founded in 1992. Brett Buynack, general manager of the company, said it has spent the past three decades earning clients’ trust “while the tools available to us lagged behind.”
Options Travel will continue to operate independently and serve clients under its own name. The company will maintain its leadership team, with Options Travel employees joining Engine after the acquisition.
“Joining Engine lets us help build what our industry has been waiting for: real technology, for every TMC that’s been underserved by legacy software,” Buynack said.