Global travel management platform TravelPerk said on Thursday (April 29) that it has raised $160 million in Series D debt funding and equity to fuel the next phase of its global growth, upping its total investment raised to $294 million to date. The funding is indicative of outside investors who believe business travelers are going to be more bullish on travel as COVID runs its course and more people get vaccinated.
TravelPerk plans to use this funding to increase its presence in the U.S. and Europe and to focus on product innovations, the release said. As the business sector is still wary of the virus, the company said it needs to provide greater flexibility, safety and sustainability within its travel management tools.
“There will always be a need for business travel. But the events of the last year have fundamentally changed businesses’ expectations and preferences”, said Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of TravelPerk. “Over the last 12 months, we’ve been constantly innovating to address the changing needs for travelers navigating the complex travel environment during COVID, and kept growing as a company during one of the worst crises the industry has ever seen.”
The company also plans to expand its business through further acquisitions, according to the press release. TravelPerk recently launched TravelSafe, its “first product for the wider travel industry.” The platform provides TravelPerk’s real-time data on COVID travel restrictions through an API.
According to Meir, consumer travel trends may offer insight into future business trips. “There was a lot of traveling for leisure over the holidays,” he said in an interview with PYMNTS. More than 9.2 million passengers traveled by air in a 10-day stretch in 2020.