As travel management providers continue navigating stiff
headwinds amid the ongoing shutdown of corporate travel, TripActions has added
another US$125 million in financing to its coffers to help the company wait out
the storm.
Led by Greenoaks Capital with participation from Vista
Credit Partners, the financing is convertible to equity if and when TripActions
undertakes an initial public offering, with "the value and timing of the
IPO [to] determine the conversion rate into equity", according to a
TripActions spokesperson.?
The latest $125 million infusion gives TripActions a total
of $350 million in reserve, according to TripActions CEO Ariel Cohen 每 funds he
said will be used to "weather Covid-19 while accelerating our investment
in R&D and expanding enterprise sales".
With the Covid-19 pandemic clamping a stranglehold on the
business travel sector, the prospect of any travel management provider going
the IPO route anytime soon seems slim. TripActions laid off nearly 300
employees in March after corporate travel screeched to a near-standstill in
mid-March.
But TripActions since has reported signs that its clients'
travel activity is beginning to pick up, with total bookings increasing weekly
for the past nine weeks and client surveys showing a steady increase in travellers'
comfort with making trips, the company said.
In the meantime, TripActions continues expanding its client
base, claiming 265 new companies over the past three months, including three
large enterprise customers, and doubling down on its Liquid payment card,
signing up nearly 30 new clients for that product over the same period, the
company said. TripActions has also bolstered its core platform, recently
launching a Covid-19 tracker and adding supplier safety procedure information
to its booking tool, along with a service to automatically manage and apply fee
waivers stemming from unused air tickets.
TripActions also this week hired former Harness vice
president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa Christopher Vik to head up its
European sales operations, touting Vik's track record of leading the growth of
US-based tech companies in Europe 每 a market where TripActions is emphasising
expansion efforts.