Travel management platform TravelPerk has announced the acquisition of Santa Monica-based NexTravel to support TravelPerk’s US expansion strategy. The acquisition, terms of which have not been disclosed, includes NexTravel’s customer base, technology, employees, inventory and US market expertise.
NexTravel is a business travel management platform founded in 2013 by Wen-Wen Lam and Alexey Pakhomov. The NexTravel platform is used by more than 700 clients in the US and, the company said, has been used to process more than 300,000 trips to date.
Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of TravelPerk, said: “Our primary goal this year has been to meet our customers' changing needs in business travel as they navigate the unique challenges created by Covid-19. Despite the temporary slowdown in travel worldwide, we have been able to invest significantly in our products and technology and move quickly to strengthen our offering, giving us a great platform for continued growth in our priority markets, particularly the US.
“The US has been an important market for TravelPerk for some time, but we’re now more committed than ever to growing our presence here. The acquisition of NexTravel will accelerate our growth in the US, doubling the size of our team on the ground and adding significantly to our clientbase and in-market expertise.”
Wen-Wen Lam of NexTravel said, “Now more than ever, we know travel managers need visibility and control, while travellers want to feel supported, safe and secure."
The acquisition of NexTravel follows that of risk management start-up Albatross in July 2020.
TravelPerk is backed by investors Kinnevik, Target Global and Felix Capital, Spark Capital, Heartcore, LocalGlobe, Amplo and 14W which have other investments in companies such as Zalando, Slack, Trello, Twitter, Farfetch and Delivery Hero.