TripActions
TripActions is a travel management company for businesses and business travelers.[1] Booking and managing travel can be done on the web or via a smartphone app.[2]
TripActions logo | |
Privately Held Company | |
Industry | Corporate Travel Management |
Founded | March, 2015 |
Founder | Ariel Cohen (CEO), Ilan Twig (CTO) |
Headquarters | Palo Alto, California, United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Ariel Cohen (CEO) Ilan Twig (CTO) Meagen Eisenberg (CMO) Leslie Kurkjian Crowe (CPO, Chief People Officer) Thomas Tuchscherer (CFO) Ciara Govern (CCO, Chief Customer Officer) |
Website | tripactions |
History
The Palo Alto, California-based travel company, TripActions Inc., was founded in 2015 by Ariel Cohen and Ilan Twig (also the founders of StreamOnce, acquired by Jive Software).[3]
In May 2015, TripActions received a $4 million Seed round led by Zeev Ventures with participation from Dovi Frances and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
In January 2016, TripActions received $14.6 million series A round led by Oren Zeev Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Group 11. The company officially launched out of stealth mode and announced their funding in January 2017.[4] In October 2017, the company announced that they had raised an additional $12.5 Million led by Lightspeed with participation from Zeev Ventures and Group 11.[5]
The company announced a $51 million Series B round led by the same two investors with participation from prior investors.[6]
The company moved in June 2017 from Menlo Park, California to their headquarters in Palo Alto.[7] In July 2018, TripActions announced their international expansion to Europe with an office in London and their European headquarters in Amsterdam.[8] They shared potential plans to expand to the Asia-Pacific region to scale their customer support infrastructure.[9]
In September 2018, the company opened an office in Sydney, Australia.
In November 2018, the company announced a valuation north of $1 billion and a $154 million Series C funding round led by new investor Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from repeat investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Zeev Ventures, and Group 11.[10] They also announced the addition of Ben Horowitz to their Board of Directors.
In February 2019, the company announced its new flight storefront in alignment with major airline partners and industry association ATPCO.[11] The storefront includes branding and imagery of cabin classes and amenities for each airline. It works for domestic and international flights, including international to international itineraries, and for flights on joint venture partners of American, Delta and United.[12]
In February 2019, the company announced the additions of Meagen Eisenberg as Chief Marketing Officer and Leslie Kurkjian Crowe as Chief People Officer to their executive board.[13]
In February 2019, TripActions was recognized as one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Travel for 2019.[14]
In June 2019, the company announced its NDC-enabled platform in partnership with United Airlines. [15] At the same time, TripActions had Series D of funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Zeev Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Group 11, which was closed at $250 million. The total valuation of the company reached $4 billion.[16]
In July 2019, the company appointed Ciara Govern as Chief Customer Officer.
In September 2019, the company announced its carbon impact initiative through providing customers visibility into the emission output of their travel programs. [17] In the same month, TripActions was recognized in the Top 20 of the Forbes Cloud 100 award. [18]
In November 2019, TripActions announced that it had enabled an NDC-enabled direct connection to the Lufthansa Group. [19]
In December 2019, the company announced the addition of Thomas Tuchscherer as Chief Financial Officer to scale corporate development and finance operations. [20]
In March 2020, TripActions laid off nearly 300 people together in a single videoconference due to the COVID-19 travel freeze. [21][22]
How it works
All functionality including administrative travel management can be done through desktop and mobile application. Users have the ability to book trips, modify reservations, track travel itineraries, chat with travel support agents, receive real-time travel notifications, and expense trips.[23]
TripActions partners with multiple suppliers in the market to provide users with a wide array of travel selection. Their travel inventory comes from consumer, corporate, and direct integrations.[24]
The platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize booking results, inventory and the support experience. Results are prioritized using the company's travel policies, real-time market prices and individual traveler preferences including loyalty program memberships.[25] This often results in the employee earning no rewards for their stays, and not being able to use the apps for their rewards accounts, depending on the chain of the hotel, providing a suboptimal travel experience for the employees.
The system's admin dashboard tracks company spend, potential savings, and employees' travel patterns. In accordance with duty of care, the admin dashboard features a live map that shows where employees are traveling in real time. Finance and travel teams can contact travelers directly within the application in emergency situations.[26]
Partnerships
The company partners with Sabre Corporation and is a member of the Priceline Group Affiliate Network as well as the Expedia, Inc. Partner Network to combine inventories for flights, accommodations, and rental cars from direct, corporate, and consumer sites. Users can access mobile apps for Uber and Lyft in their mobile travel itineraries while traveling.[27] Additional partners include Coupa and Expensify for expense management within the platform.
External links
References
- Sheivachman, Andrew (18 July 2018). "TripActions Expands Globally With a Focus on Service". Skift. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
- Wolfe, Bryan. "TripActions Aims to Eliminate Business Travel Nightmares Forever". AppAdvice. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
- Roof, Katie. "TripActions raises $14.6 million for its corporate travel booking tool". TechCrunch. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
- O'Neill, Seab. "TripActions Raises $14 Million to Trim Rogue Bookings". Skift. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
- Barzilay, Omri. "TripActions Raises $27M To Transform The $1.3T Business Travel Industry". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
- Josephs, Leslie (2018-03-07). "Start-up TripActions raises $51 million to take on corporate travel giants". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
- Josephs, Leslie (2018-03-07). "Start-up TripActions raises $51 million to take on corporate travel giants". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
- Sheivachman, Andrew (18 July 2018). "TripActions Expands Globally With a Focus on Service". Skift. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
- Habtemariam, Dawit (24 July 2018). "TripActions Opens First Non-U.S. Offices". Business Travel News. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
- "Rapid customer growth momentum propels new-era corporate travel management company TripActions to $154M raise with valuation north of $1B". TripActions. 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
- "A New Standard for Booking Flights". TripActions. 2019-02-05. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
- "TripActions Adopts U.S. Airlines' Next-Generation Storefront Effort". Skift. 2019-02-05. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
- "Accelerating TripActions Growth: One Great Travel Experience at a Time". TripActions. 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
- "The World's Most Innovative Companies 2019". Fast Company. 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
- "TripActions launches NDC platform in partnership with United Airlines". Phocuswire. 2019-06-11. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- Carson, Biz. "TripActions, A Corporate Travel Startup That Rewards Road Warriors For Booking Cheap Hotels, Is Now Worth $4 Billion". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
- "TripActions surfaces carbon impact data for flights and rail". Phocuswire. 2019-10-02. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
- "The Cloud 100". Forbes. 2019-09-11. Retrieved 2019-09-11.
- "TripActions Connects to Lufthansa Group NDC API". Business Travel News. 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
- "Travel Startup TripActions Hires First CFO". The Wall Street Journal. 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
- "A Letter from TripActions Co-founder & CEO Ariel Cohen". TripActions Blog. 2020-03-26. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
- "TripActions lays off hundreds amid COVID-19 travel freeze". TechCrunch. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
- Magistretti, Bérénice. "TripActions launches its business travel app and unveils a $14.6 million round". VentureBeat. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
- Harrison, Kate. "After $14.6M Raise In 2016, A New Corporate Travel Rewards Program Arrives On The Scene". Forbes. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
- "Finding the Balance: Why We Focus on Employee Experience and Company Savings". Business News Daily. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
- Moreno, Denisse. "TripActions: Platform Aims To Make Booking Business Trips Easier For Companies and Employees". International Business Times. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
- "Corporate Travel, Online With Ease And Savings". PYMNTS.com. Retrieved 10 July 2017.