TravelPerk’s ‘NexT’ravel plans: Spanish startup eyes to strengthen its foothold in US with this acquisition

Spanish startup TravelPerk, which is one of the largest global travel management platforms just announced the acquisition of NexTravel, a US-based business travel platform. Notably, this is TravekPerk’s second and largest acquisition after the integration of Albatross, a risk management startup in July 2020.

Why this acquisition?

With the acquisition of NexTravel, the Spanish company will be able to fuel its ongoing expansion strategy in the US. Travelperk will also take over NexTravel’s customer base, employees, technology, inventory and US market expertise.

NexTravel was founded in 2013 by Wen-Wen Lam and Alexey Pakhomov in Santa Monica, and launched in 2015 from Y Combinator. It has over 700 business clients in the US. These clients book, manage, expense, and report employee travel. To date, this startup has processed more than 300,000 trips. By acquiring this company, TravelPerk will be able to significantly increase the volume of US-based travel spends on its platform and help consolidate its position as a leader in the industry and emerge strongly from the pandemic.

Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of TravelPerk, comments, “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. This is another important milestone in TravelPerk’s global growth and we are excited to bring our combined offering to market.”

Wen-Wen Lam of NexTravel says, “NexTravel and TravelPerk share the same core mission: giving travel managers and travellers worldwide a unique travel experience. By joining forces with TravelPerk, we’ll be able to bring a world-class booking experience to our customers and extend their international capabilities. We can’t wait to continue the great work alongside their team in setting new standards for the industry.”

Partnership with Southwest Airlines

Besides this, the Spanish company is announcing a game-changing partnership with Southwest Airlines in the US. This is another push it has taken to provide the best business travel management experience to the customers in the US. Eventually, TravelPerk will be able to access the company’s full inventory to book domestic flights in the US.

Eyes to overcome a health crisis

The prime focus of TravelPerk is to overcome the health crisis by offering innovative solutions for travel in the post-pandemic world. In 2020, the company spent time in increasing its customer base and future-proofing products that help users navigate the travel environment that had come to a grinding halt by the pandemic. To be precise, the company has been continuously improving its products such as FlexiPerk and new ones such as TravelSafe API that ensure to provide real-time data on travel restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 available to the travel sector.

The NexTravel acquisition is a part of TravelPerk’s strategy to get stronger and acquire other companies and integrate their expertise and talented teams to build long-term growth.

About TravelPerk

TravelPerk is the next-generation business travel platform pioneering the future of business travel. The company has the world’s largest travel inventory alongside powerful management features, 24/7 customer support, state-of-the-art technology and consumer-grade design that enable companies and organisations worldwide such as Share Now, Algolia, GetYourGuide, The Robbins Company, Glovo, USA Wrestling and Lightspeed, to get the most out of their travel.

Last year, in July, the company acquired Albatross, a startup that offers an API for structured information on travel restrictions and local guidelines to travel applications.

TravelPerk founded by Avi Meir, Javier Suarez and Ron Levin in 2015 is backed by world-class investors like Kinnevik, Target Global, Felix Capital, Spark Capital, Heartcore, LocalGlobe, Amplo, 14W—investors in some of the most disruptive companies in tech including Zalando, Slack, Trello, Twitter, Farfetch and Delivery Hero.