Corporate travel management startup TravelPerk has unveiled an API-based platform open to customers, partners and developers.
The company is calling the platform a marketplace for services, such as human resources and expense management at launch, with others - payments, for example - to follow.
TravelPerk wants customers and partners to build and integrate new or existing apps within the marketplace.
CEO Avi Meir says TravelPerk has been working on the marketplace for more than a year, adding that its acquisition of Albatross, announced in July, was part of the strategy.
“It’s really an ecosystem and we’re inviting anyone who builds software related to travel to connect and interact bi-directionally,” he says.
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Meir says the launch of the API platform will enable customers to access their preferred services and should remove the need for TravelPerk to build bespoke tools for customers.
It also allows customers to integrate TravelPerk’s existing services with their corporate platforms.
He hopes the industry will move away from closed networks that force customers to use a certain system which, he says, is “against TravelPerk’s DNA.”
The launch also includes a developer hub with everything developers need to build and test services.
Meir says: “We believe this way we can do what we do best and give customers alternatives to choose what’s best for them.”
Commenting on current trends in the corporate travel market, he says he believes recovery is accelerating with growth in volumes every week.
“It’s mostly domestic. Germany is almost back to normal and can see the same trend in the U.S.”