TripActions targets large global companies with launch of “Enterprise Edition” services

Five years ago, TripActions was a new startup in the world of business travel, founded by Ariel Cohen and Ilan Twig to fix the problems they faced as they traveled for work. 

Since then, the Silicon Valley-based company has been on an accelerated growth track, with steady funding rounds including the latest in June - $125 million in debt financing convertible at IPO – and a reported $350 million in cash reserves to get through the COVID-19 crisis and continue developing new products and services.

In August 2019, the company launched “TripActions Consulting” as part of its strategy to take capture more large corporate clients who have traditionally worked with the legacy travel management companies such as American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel, FCM Travel Solutions and CWT. 

Now TripActions is moving further in that direction with the launch today of TripActions Enterprise Edition, a unified travel and expense solution combining artificial intelligence-powered booking, global inventory, payments and expense technology, duty of care and safety features and a team of travel agents for round-the-clock support.

The company says it has seen an uptick in demand since the pandemic became a worldwide issue in March and has added more than 400 new clients since then, many of them global enterprise-grade companies that have switched to TripActions from some of the legacy travel management companies. 

“A year and half ago when I started [at TripActions], we would see AmEx GBT, BCD, CWT here and there. Now we are seeing them in almost every deal. So we are challenging them in the market. We are going up against them in RFPs, and we are winning RFPS,” says Meagen Eisenberg, TripAction’s CMO.

“So I would put us certainly in that category with them and being a worldwide global provider of business travel.”

Eisenberg says TripActions engineers have been rapidly building new features to address COVID-related needs, such as automated tracking and application of travel waivers, travel policy updates and self-service trip changes or cancellations. 

And since the low point in April she says the company is now seeing growth week-over-week in business travel activity from its clients.

“I do think we will get back to travel, even if it’s 50% levels, by mid-next year,” Eisenberg says. 

“Our enterprise clients are traveling, and that’s also why they are shifting platforms. They may have come down on travel, but they realize as they come out of this and they have more people traveling they need better visibility, better control, policy management to help their travelers as they get back to business travel recovery.”