Our Investment in TravelPerk

Transforming the way companies budget, book and manage business travel

By Alex Finkelstein

The market for business travel is estimated to be worth $1.25 trillion globally — yet its shocking lack of innovation has left it in the dark ages. On the other hand, the online consumer travel industry has transformed endlessly, from great leading companies such as Booking.com, Expedia and Kayak.com — to newer platforms including Airbnb, Google Flights and GetYourGuide. Consumer travelers have a myriad of online tools and apps at their fingertips to help them seamlessly plan and coordinate their trips.

At the same time, the corporate travel industry still lacks a coherent way to arrange and manage business travel with the levels of control, visibility and compliance required by businesses, combined with beautiful UI/UX. That’s why I’m very happy to announce today that Spark Capital has led the Series A investment in Barcelona-based TravelPerk, which is solving universal and longstanding issues with business travel management.

TravelPerk is a free platform that transforms the way businesses budget, book and manage corporate travel. Users have access to a single booking platform, which integrates all major airline, hotel, car rental and train websites, where they can manage itineraries, payment methods, and travel policies in line with company budgets.

I first met TravelPerk founders Avi Meir and Javier Suarez through an introduction from Johannes Reck, CEO of the aforementioned GetYourGuide, another founder in our portfolio doing brilliant things in the travel space. Johannes was spot on — Avi & Javier are exactly the type of founders we look for at Spark Capital. That’s what personally excited me about this business: Avi & Javier are creative thinkers who are product-focused with sharp intellect and drive. They’ve also been very successful at both founding companies and as key players at the largest travel companies in the world, and they’ve built a team of travel industry veterans from companies like Booking.com, Hotel Ninjas (acquired by Booking.com), SkyScanner, and El Al Airlines.

I’m very excited to work with the team at TravelPerk as they bring online business travel out of the dark ages. Also, the food in Barcelona ain’t too shabby.