Tradeshift Acquisition Gives Virtual Assistant A Boost

Business payments and expense management firm Tradeshift only recently launched a virtual assistant solution for its corporate clients, an Alexa-like tool to help professionals book and pay for corporate travel.

Dubbed Tradeshift Go, the solution has only been out on the market for a few weeks. But it’s only recently that reports have emerged detailing Tradeshift’s acquisition to give Tradeshift Go a boost.

Reports on Tuesday (July 5) said Tradeshift has acquired Hyper Travel, a startup that positioned itself as a “personal travel concierge in your pocket.” The company offers an app that enables travelers to connect with travel agents; artificial intelligence is used to direct the traveler’s message to the correct recipient.

The takeover of Hyper officially closed in May, reports added, though the firms did not reveal financial details of the acquisition.

According to Tradeshift, Hyper powers the travel booking assistant and conversational aspect of Tradeshift Go.

“While we will continue to provide every business traveler with their own personal travel assistant, Tradeshift opens the doors for us to apply the technology and operations behind Hyper to entirely new industries,” Hyper Founders Minqi Jiang and Peter Zakin said in an email to Skift. “In the months to come, we will be thoroughly expanding our messaging-based travel experience to additional areas of focus.”

Tradeshift said it anticipates expanding Tradeshift Go across other areas of business services beyond travel booking and expense management.

The mobile corporate travel space is a competitive one, and despite the recent acquisition, the industry may not be consolidating.

Last month, the founder of consumer travel booking portal Priceline launched a corporate travel app of his own. Jay Walker revealed the rollout of Upside, a tool to help businesses stay on budget through a rewards system when booking corporate travel.