TripActions raises $154M to boost R&D, claims unicorn status

TripActions, a corporate travel management startup, has raised $154 million in Series C funding, saying its value has shifted to over $1 billion.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, while previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Zeev Ventures and SGVC also participated.

Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz will now join the TripActions board of directors.

The startup, which was founded in 2015 and came out of beta in early 2017, has raised $232 million in funding to date.

This latest raise will go towards the expansion of its Amsterdam-based research and development team, further development of its technology such as its custom-built chat system and driving adoption of services such as its meetings and events solutions and its VIP program, TripActions Luxe.

The company announced Series A funding of $14.6 million in January 2017 followed by $12.5 million in April.

A further investment of $51 million came in March 2018, with the company saying at the time that it had doubled the number of customers and travelers under management every quarter. 

Ariel Cohen, co-founder and CEO of TripActions, says: “Unfortunately business travel today is fraught with pain points for travelers and companies leading to low traveler adoption and compliance rates, incomplete visibility into travel spend and difficulty delivering duty of care.”

Co-founder Ilan Twig goes on to say that through artificial intelligence and machine learning, TripActions can offer a “truly customized travel experience at scale” as well as reduce the time it takes to book from more than an hour to six minutes.

The TripActions investment follows a Series C round of $44 million for TravelPerk, announced in October this year. 

TravelPerk, which also aims to reduce friction for business travelers, was building on the funding of $21 million it announced in April 2018.

Corporate travel is viewed as ripe for disruption because of the low adoption rates of existing systems, the fact that many businesses do not use a booking tool at all and younger generations coming into the workforce are pushing for user-friendly technology.