Spotnana, a travel technology startup that came
out of stealth mode nearly one year ago, has raised $75 million in Series B
funding.
The round was led by Durable Capital Partners LP, with
participation from existing investors Madrona Venture Group, ICONIQ Growth,
Mubadala Capital and Blank Ventures.
Spotnana describes its solution as a “travel-as-a-service” platform,
combining everything from online booking tools to a booking engine, system of
record for booking travel, mid-office replacement and data integrations for
travel inventory. The solution is a “single cloud-based technology stack” that
can be used by corporations, travel management companies, suppliers and technology
providers.
Since its launch last fall, founder and CEO Sarosh Waghmar
says Spotnana has seen “rapid expansion on the corporate side ... several large
TMCs have signed up as well. Also there will be announcements of technology partners
using our APIs and white labeling the product.”
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The company names Brex as one of its large corporate customers,
and Waghmar says a Fortune 20 company is doing a pilot.
“We’ve moved up in the enterprise space very quickly,” he
says.
While focused on corporate travel, Spotnana says its intent
is to “rebuild the infrastructure” of the industry more broadly, to improve the
experience for all travelers whether for leisure or business. The company says
some of its corporate users already use the booking tool for leisure trips, and
it plans to enable group leisure travel in the next month. Additionally,
Spotnana says its tech stack can be used by consumer-facing companies, for
example an online travel agency or a financial services firm that wants to
offer travel rewards.
Spotnana will use the funding to grow its engineering and
product teams. It currently has more than 200 people in eight locations around the
world.
“Spotnana is a completely new type of solution provider for
the travel industry,” says Henry Ellenbogen, managing partner and chief investment
officer at Durable Capital Partners LP.
“They are experiencing tremendous growth, because their
innovations go far beyond an elegant online booking tool. By modernizing the
entire technology stack for booking a trip, they are breaking down the walls
between suppliers and travelers and opening the door to a new level of
personalization in the booking process. Spotnana has the potential to be a
long-term, sustainable success.”
The company has raised more than $100 million to date.
Waghmar credits this latest round to the fact the company’s growing customer
base is providing validation to investors – and the fact that the opportunity
is large.
For global corporations, Waghmar says the API-native solution
can be launched in multiple countries virtually simultaneously and provides a
single dashboard with visibility into all employee activity.
The system also provides personalized booking options
connected to the same benefits their employees would receive through supplier
websites; inventory from direct connections, global distribution systems and
other sources – without the bias of GDS incentives - and a single platform used
by both travelers and agents.
“Spotnana is accelerating innovation throughout the travel
industry by enabling everyone to benefit from the power of cloud computing,
microservices, an open platform, and open APIs,” says Steve Singh, managing director
at Madrona Venture Group and executive chairman at Spotnana.
“After serving as CEO of Concur for more than two decades,
I’m excited to be an investor in Spotnana. No one is doing more today to tackle
the hard technology problems in the travel industry in order to power better experiences
for travelers around the world.”
Singh spoke about Spotnana in an interview at The Phocuswright Conference last November. Watch the full discussion with Phocuswright senior vice president of research and product strategy Charuta Fadnis below.
Executive Interview: Madrona Venture Group - Steve Singh - The Phocuswright Conference