Corporate travel is messy. For most business travelers, there is much to contend with, even before the mile-long security lines and likely delays. Employees need to find the right transport and accommodation while staying within the company travel policy. This means balancing price, location, timing, and also keeping track of every receipt, even for that coffee or croissant. And let’s not forget about trying to optimise to earn rewards for future trips, which can make the whole process a bit more bearable next time.

Despite all the planning, no matter how prepared you are, travel is often a mix of things beyond your control: flight cancellations, traffic or unexpected detours. By the time you arrive at your destination, it’s easy to feel like you’ve already spent all your energy just getting there.

For companies, it’s not any easier. Booking tools for corporate travel are fragmented, approval processes are slow, and managing expenses is a headache. As businesses face rising costs and need to impose tighter controls, they’re looking for an integrated, automated solution that simplifies travel while keeping budgets under control and employees happy.

Founded in 2015, TravelPerk – a Barcelona-based digital corporate travel management platform – has since become a leading digital-first travel management platform for SMBs and mid-market businesses across Europe and the US. Now, it has raised a $200m Series E, to accelerate this mission and fuel its continued expansion into the US. EQT Growth, which aims to support tech leaders in scaling for the global stage, is co-leading the round alongside Atomico, with new investors Noteus Partners and Sequoia joining existing backers.

Bringing Travel and Expense Management Together

For years, companies had to choose: an all-in-one travel and expense platform or best-in-class standalone solutions. TravelPerk’s goal is to break that tradeoff. By combining one of the world’s largest travel inventories with AI-powered expense automation, TravelPerk now delivers a true end-to-end solution for business travel managers, finance teams, and employees alike.

The opportunity is massive. EQT estimates that the corporate travel market is worth $200bn, yet 50 percent of businesses still manage travel manually – a whitespace waiting to be captured. TravelPerk has been scaling fast, growing 50 percent year-over-year for the past two years, with annualized revenue now exceeding $200m and booking volumes surpassing $2.5bn.

A Smarter, AI-Driven Travel Platform

TravelPerk has spent the last decade building deep travel inventory integrations across airlines, hotels, trains and car rentals. While competitors struggled or shut down during Covid-19, TravelPerk doubled down on product innovation. AI-driven automation has already cut customer care costs and improved gross margins from 40 percent to over 70 percent, making TravelPerk one of the most efficient and scalable players in the space.

And it’s about to become even more automated. TravelPerk’s Series E is bolstered by a simultaneous acquisition of Yokoy, a Swiss AI-powered expense management platform. This move enables TravelPerk to embed expense management capabilities into its offering, eliminating manual processes helping businesses streamline approvals, reduce costs, and enhance reporting – all from a single platform.

Scaling with EQT Growth

We’ve been tracking TravelPerk for years and have been consistently impressed by co-founder and CEO Avi Meir and the team’s resilience and execution. When business travel collapsed during Covid-19, they didn’t hibernate – they rebuilt, expanded inventory integrations, and came out stronger.

TravelPerk’s focus is on continued global expansion and accelerating growth in the US with the ambition to become the number one travel and expense management platform. And we’ll be supporting this next phase of growth by leveraging EQT’s global network, expertise in M&A and capital markets, and connections to more than 100 European and US portfolio companies as potential customers.

With the combination of a superb product, AI-powered automation, and a massive market opportunity, we believe TravelPerk is well-positioned to lead the next evolution of corporate travel and expense management – and we couldn’t be more excited to be part of the journey.