TravelPerk, a Spanish corporate travel unicorn startup with headquarters in Barcelona and Zurich, has secured $200M in a new Series E round. Atomico and EQT Growth led the funding, which was participated in by Noteus Partners and Sequoia Capital. Other existing investors included General Catalyst, Kinnevik, Softbank Vision Fund, and Blackstone.
The oversubscribed round doubled the company’s valuation to $2.7 billion, strengthening its market position. According to Dealroom data, as of January 2025, TravelPerk had raised approximately $731 million across multiple funding rounds.
The fresh capital will fuel further growth — venturing into the US market (following the 2024 AmTrav acquisition) while making substantial investments in product development, technology, and AI. Additionally, the company has acquired the Swiss startup Yokoy, a leader in expense management and payments, to enhance its service offerings.
AI integration
Founded in 2015 by Avi Meir, Javier Suarez, and Ron Levin, Softbank-backed TravelPerk is a Barcelona-based company specialising in business travel management, aimed at simplifying corporate travel by offering an all-in-one platform for booking and managing trips. However, like many travel-related businesses, TravelPerk faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. One such challenge was a decline in business travel, which severely impacted operations. The company encountered decreased revenue as most business trips were cancelled or postponed, necessitating immediate strategic adaptations to survive the crisis. Despite these initial difficulties, TravelPerk implemented several key strategies to navigate the pandemic. These included maintaining a no-layoff policy, expanding their product and engineering teams, making strategic acquisitions, and adapting their offerings to meet new market demands.
TravelPerk continues to recognise market needs, having recently acquired Yokoy, a leading European provider of AI-powered expense, invoice, and payment processing solutions. Yokoy’s track record includes over $100 million in funding and more than 700 clients. Since 2020, the companies have worked hand in hand to deliver travel and expense management solutions to major clients, including Breitling, On Running, and Medskin, reassuring the audience about the successful collaboration between TravelPerk and Yokoy. The combined team size of TravelPerk and Yokoy following the acquisition is now 1500+, TravelPerk told exclusively to TFN.
Philippe Sahli, co-founder and CEO of Yokoy, said: “Given our successful collaboration and shared vision for integrated travel and expense management, we are thrilled to unite as one company. Together, we’ll deliver an unprecedented experience to our customers.”
TravelPerk’s latest strategic acquisition, Yokoy, is a significant move that follows a series of earlier strategic moves: Albatross (2020), NexTravel (2021), and AmTrav (2024). This all-equity deal enhances TravelPerk’s AI capabilities and broadens its customer base, reinforcing its market strategy.
Perking up business travel and competition
TravelPerk has demonstrated impressive growth and profitability, with annual booking volumes exceeding $2.5 billion, yearly revenue surpassing $200 million, over 50% annual growth in the past two years, and EBITDA break-even achieved by the end of 2024.Key growth drivers include strategic acquisitions, innovative products, and market opportunities. The company’s continuous R&D investment addresses evolving customer needs through AI-powered travel and expense management, flexibility options, safety measures, sustainability features, and transparent booking and expense management.Unlike the competitors – Navan (formerly TripActions), SAP Concur, Egencia (part of Express Global Business Travel), and Amex GBT – the platform integrates popular business tools, offers 24/7 support and comprehensive services — including flights, hotels, car rentals, and trains — all in one place.
$1.5 trillion opportunity for business travel
The global corporate travel market has demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth, reaching $1.5 trillion in 2024, a 6% increase from pre-pandemic levels, signalling a robust recovery and expansion in the business travel sector. Within this expansive market, TravelPerk has strategically positioned itself to focus on the SMB and mid-market segments, which present attractive growth opportunities. The company targets an estimated $200 billion addressable market spanning the US and Europe, with significant potential for innovation in travel management solutions and digital transformation of corporate travel processes.Avi Meir, TravelPerk’s CEO and co-founder, commented, “Our focus has never been stronger as we expand across core markets, accelerate growth in the US, and work to become the number one travel and expense management platform.”Hillary Ball, Partner at Atomico, concluded: “Corporate travel and expense management is time-consuming, expensive, and burdensome. We’ve long admired how TravelPerk has solved this problem with a product-centric approach and remained at the forefront of the market through strategic acquisitions, international growth, and innovative product expansions.
