Business Travel
businesswire | June 28, 2023
Airbase, the leading software provider that helps companies procure, pay, and close their books with ease, and TravelPerk, the fastest-growing global travel management platform, today announced an integration that will enable businesses to seamlessly manage their travel expenditure with less effort. This partnership brings together TravelPerk’s vast travel inventory and reporting insights, and Airbase’s complete spend management platform — which handles all non-payroll spend, including corporate cards, bill payments, purchase orders, and employee reimbursements.
“We are excited to announce our collaboration with TravelPerk, a critical step in our quest to help companies manage all of their non-payroll spend,” said Airbase Founder and CEO, Thejo Kote. “This seamless integration automates workflows, reduces manual errors, and provides improved control over travel spending, facilitating rapid reimbursements and a superior user experience for our customers.”
With this integration, businesses can effortlessly connect to TravelPerk from their Airbase account, define travel policies, set booking cost limits, and assign Airbase-supported virtual or physical cards for travel bookings. This leads to unprecedented visibility and control over travel expenses in addition to optimizing cashback rewards.
Kevin Permenter, Research Director, Financial Applications at IDC, commented on the initiative. “The fusion of Airbase’s spend management platform with TravelPerk’s travel inventory and travel policy controls provides businesses with an enhanced level of control over their business travel expenses. This partnership helps enhance efficiency and bolster compliance for users. This integration will be a welcomed addition to the corporate spending and expense management landscape.”
An early user of the integration, Ben Watiwat, VP Finance at Immutable, praised its benefits. “The automatic matching of receipts to expenses and seamless syncing to our general ledger has been a significant time-saver. This integration has been a game-changer, offering efficiency and ease of use that we cannot recommend highly enough.”
The integration with TravelPerk elevates Airbase’s standing in the spend management sector, offering a smoother reconciliation process and allowing businesses to stay within budget. Airbase and TravelPerk are poised to redefine business travel and expense management, showcasing the immense potential of an integrated solution.
About Airbase
Airbase modern spend management combines Guided Procurement, Accounts Payable Automation, Expense Management, and Corporate Cards. Airbase provides the best way to control spending, close the books faster, ensure compliance, and make teams more productive. Airbase brings efficiency to approvals, accounting, and payments with a procure, pay, close process that employees and accounting teams love.
About TravelPerk
TravelPerk is the next-generation business travel platform pioneering the future of business travel. TravelPerk’s all-in-one platform gives travelers the freedom they want whilst providing companies with the control they need. The result is saved time, money, and hassle for everyone.
TravelPerk has the world’s largest travel inventory alongside powerful management features, 24/7 customer support, state-of-the-art technology, and consumer-grade design, all of which are enabling companies and organizations worldwide such as Wise, Revolut, Monzo, Farfetch, Just Eat, GetYourGuide and Skipthedishes, to get the most out of their travel.
Backed by world-class investors like General Catalyst, Kinnevik AB, DST Global, Greyhound Capital, Target Global, Felix Capital, Spark Capital, LocalGlobe, and Heartcore — investors in some of the most disruptive companies in tech including Airbnb, Slack, Twitter, Trello, Farfetch, Zalando and Delivery Hero — TravelPerk is reinventing business travel with an end-to-end solution that works.
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Travel Technology
businesswire | August 07, 2023
OAG, the world’s leading data platform for the global travel industry, has acquired Infare, the leading provider of competitor air travel data, from Ventiga Capital in a deal valuing the combined entity at over US$500m. Together, OAG and Infare have an exciting journey ahead to leverage a truly market-leading end-to-end data platform to serve mission-critical air travel intelligence needs across the world.
With renowned industry heritage, both businesses share a deep passion for quality, accuracy, and customer-centricity. Together, there is a significant opportunity for OAG and Infare to better serve airline partners and the wider travel ecosystem with high-quality data and innovative solutions.
Infare is the partner of choice for airlines demanding the highest quality competitor air travel data source to support their growth. Combining OAG’s existing data solutions with airfare data creates a compelling proposition for customers who can get a broader picture of supply and demand. This enables customers to forecast resource, evaluate travel demand and competition, and build more complex and innovative models to drive revenue and profitable growth.
Through the acquisition, OAG now grows to over 300 employees globally across 10 offices.
Phil Callow, CEO of OAG, commented:
“The increasing dynamism in global travel and technology is fuelling a need for more sophisticated, granular data to understand, manage and unlock growth in air travel. The acquisition of Infare strengthens our ability to deliver consistent and accurate information across the wider supply and demand value chain. Together, we are enabling new and existing customers to thrive and innovate ahead of their counterparts. I am excited to welcome Infare colleagues to the OAG family.”
Nils Gelbjerg-Hansen, CEO of Infare, commented:
“Access to comprehensive and accurate data is paramount for making informed business decisions. Airlines rely on data to gain valuable insights into customer behaviour, market trends, and operational efficiency. Our technology platform, data sets, and intelligence software complement OAG’s and will greatly benefit our customers worldwide. We see this as a unique opportunity to expand our services and introduce new innovative products for our customers, we are excited about the journey ahead together.”
Both management teams will continue in the Group and will retain a shareholding, with fresh backing provided by Vitruvian Partners.
Ben Johnson, a Partner at Vitruvian, commented:
“OAG and Infare are both clear leaders in their respective global markets. The combination creates additional growth opportunities for both teams. Vitruvian is delighted to support this ambitious technology company and renew our relationship with them for the years to come.”
Niclas Gabrán, Managing Partner at Ventiga Capital Partners, commented:
“It has been a pleasure working together with Nils and his team to build Infare into a leading travel data provider through organic growth and acquisitions. Infare’s next chapter as a part of the OAG family will undoubtedly create further growth opportunities both within and outside the air travel sector.”
About OAG
OAGis the leading data platform for the global travel industry, powering the growth and innovation of the air travel ecosystem since 1929. It has the world’s largest network of flight information, covering the whole journey from planning to customer experience. Customers include airlines, airports, travel technology players, aviation service providers, government agencies, financial institutions, and consultancies. Headquartered in the UK, OAG has operations in the USA, Singapore, Japan, China, and Lithuania.
About Infare
Infare is the leading competitor air travel data provider, empowering airlines to make effective pricing decisions. Infare’s mission is to fuel airline systems with high-quality competitor air travel data delivered daily, multiple times a day or live. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, the company has a global reach and presence worldwide.
About Vitruvian Partners
Vitruvian is an independent growth capital firm headquartered in London with a global presence. Vitruvian focuses on dynamic situations characterized by rapid growth and change across industries spanning technology, financial services, healthcare, and business and consumer services. Vitruvian is among the largest pools of capital in Europe supporting innovative and higher growth companies. Vitruvian Funds have backed over 90 companies and have assets under management of €15+ billion. Notable investments to date include global market leaders and innovators in their field such as Skyscanner, Sykes Holiday Cottages, CFC Underwriting, CallCredit, Travel Counsellors, Trustpilot, Farfetch, Just Eat, Wise, and Global-e.
About Ventiga Capital Partners
Ventiga is an entrepreneurial and growth-focused investor partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs and management teams to achieve sustainable, profitable growth and transformational value through active, engaged, and responsible ownership. Ventiga invests in profitable growth companies with superior business expansion potential, primarily in the B2B services space.
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Destination and Tourism
globenewswire | July 24, 2023
Treasure Global Inc an innovative technology solutions provider, today announced that the Company has signed a collaboration agreement with VCI Global Limited (NASDAQ: VCIG) (“VCI Global”), a multi-disciplinary consulting group focused on business and technology, for the development of an artificial intelligence (“AI”)-powered travel platform as a new offering for travellers in Malaysia.
VCI Global has selected TGL to develop the AI-powered platform to function as a high-tech portable concierge App, utilizing the latest advanced technologies to provide relevant travel recommendations in real time. By leveraging advanced AI-powered solutions, the app will aim to revolutionize the travel experience, assisting users in planning travel and related activities, such as suggesting places to explore, dining during their travels in Malaysia and to improve on seamless bookings for flights, hotels and car rentals. The platform is designed to break down language barriers as well, with advanced translation functions.
As part of the agreement, VCI Global will pay a service fee to TGL worth USD$1 million. TGL will develop, design and produce the integrated software platform and provide ongoing maintenance for the AI-powered travel app, which is targeted to launch next year. TGL and VCI Global will share ownership and profits generated from this collaboration on a 50:50 basis.
“We believe that global tourism has returned to its pre-pandemic levels, and we are well-placed to capitalize on the post-pandemic 'revenge travel' phenomenon through our collaboration with VCI Global. Our partnership to develop this app will leverage our combined resources and expertise, namely VCI’s technology experience with TGL’s software development skills, extensive user base and connections with merchants and underscores VCI’s trust in TGL's capabilities. The Malaysian digital economy is projected to grow to USD$34 billion by 2025, of which USD$8 billion1 is expected to be related to online travel-related activities. Our AI-powered travel platform will be a catalyst for growth, unlocking tremendous opportunities in the online travel sector. TGL’s unwavering focus on cutting-edge technologies and strategic partnerships solidifies its position as a trailblazer in the travel industry, strongly positioned to meet the evolving needs of modern travellers,” said Sam Teo, Chief Executive Officer of Treasure Global.
“As in our previous collaborations, I am humbled that once again we are able to play our part by offering our expertise in enhancing the landscape of the travel industry as global tourism migrates itself to high-tech platforms to maximise travellers’ experience. I am very confident that this AI-powered travel platform will act as a growth catalyst for Malaysia’s tourism industry. As these (tourist) arrivals numbers are still below the pre-Covid level, we strongly believe that visitors to Malaysia will increase exponentially in the near future, especially as travel is made easier,” said Dato’ Victor Hoo, Group Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VCI Global.
About VCI Global Limited
VCI Global is a multi-disciplinary consulting group with key advisory practices in the areas of business and technology. The Company provides business and boardroom strategy services, investor relation services, and technology consultancy services. Its clients range from small-medium enterprises and government-linked agencies to publicly traded companies across a broad array of industries. VCI Global operates solely in Malaysia, with clients predominantly from Malaysia, but also serves some clients from China, Singapore, and the US.
About Treasure Global Inc
Treasure Global is a Malaysian solutions provider developing innovative technology platforms. Treasure Global has developed two technology solutions: the ZCITY App, a unique digital ecosystem that transforms and simplifies the e-payment experience for consumers, while simultaneously allowing them to earn rewards; and TAZTE, a digital F&B management system providing merchants with a one-stop management and automated solution to digitalize their businesses. Treasure Global also acts as a master franchiser in SEA for popular restaurant chains, while providing them with the TAZTE solution. As of March 31, 2023, ZCITY had over 2,400,000 registered users.
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