Features and Advice
businesswire | June 29, 2023
Leading travel technology company Amadeus and Emburse, the global leader in spend optimization, are joining forces through a strategic partnership to better address the business travel demands of global enterprises. The partnership will ensure a seamless experience from trip planning and booking, through to expense reporting, reconciliation, reimbursements and spend analytics.
This relationship delivers more choice to enterprises that are looking for an integrated suite of modern, sophisticated travel spend management tools, without having to compromise on quality by being tied to a single vendor.
Amadeus and Emburse can now deliver a fully integrated solution to new customers, as well as offering each other’s solutions to current customers. Amadeus will promote Emburse Chrome River as a recommended integrated expense management offering to corporations in the United States and specific markets in Europe (UK, Scandinavia and Benelux), while Emburse will add Cytric Travel and Cytric Easy for Microsoft Teams to its portfolio of travel spend optimization solutions.
“Emburse and Amadeus have had data integrations for some time, and we share a number of high-profile customers, but with this partnership, we’re really taking things to the next level,” said Eric Friedrichsen, CEO of Emburse. “The two companies offer a number of complementary solutions that span the entire business travel journey. This relationship enables us to empower global enterprises with state-of-the-art tools that offer greater simplicity for their end-users, while creating value for the enterprise through greater visibility and more efficient travel spending.”
Through the global reach of this partnership and their commitment to innovation, Amadeus Cytric Solutions and Emburse can now offer a compelling alternative that not only meets the travel and expense (T&E) requirements of global enterprises with complex travel programs but also elevates the impact to a global business through the enablement of travel analytics, travel companion apps and integrated card programs.
“This partnership enables us to go beyond managing travel booking and expense. By leveraging our two companies’ complementary strengths, we are greatly enhancing the traveler’s digital and mobile experience and corporations’ travel spend and policy management throughout the entire travel journey. All of this will enable corporations to optimize their travel spend in terms of cost, carbon emission and productivity collaboration,” said Rudy Daniello, Executive Vice President, Amadeus Cytric Solutions.
The two companies will continue working together to collaborate and innovate in building end to end spend management.
About Amadeus
Travel powers progress. Amadeus powers travel. Amadeus’ solutions connect travelers to the journeys they want through travel agents, search engines, tour operators, airlines, airports, hotels, cars and railways.
We have developed our technology in partnership with the travel industry for over 30 years. We combine a deep understanding of how people travel with the ability to design and deliver the most complex, trusted, critical systems our customers need. In 2019, we helped connect over 1.9 billion people to local travel providers in over 190 countries.
We have a global mindset and a local presence wherever our customers need us. Our purpose is to shape the future of travel. We are passionate in our pursuit of better technology that makes better journeys.
Amadeus is an IBEX 35 company, listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange under AMS.MC. The company has also been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the last eleven years.
About Emburse
Emburse is a modern spend management company offering solutions that revolutionize the way organizations manage employee expenses, process invoices and make payments. Emburse humanizes work by empowering business travelers, finance professionals, and CFOs to eliminate manual, time-consuming tasks, so they can focus on what matters most.
Its innovative offerings, which are tailored to meet the unique business needs of specific industries, company sizes, and geographies, are trusted by more than 9 million users in more than 120 countries. Over 18,000 customers, from start-ups to global enterprises, including Bosch, Grant Thornton, Telefónica, Lufthansa Systems, and Toyota, rely on Emburse to make faster, smarter decisions, improve compliance, and optimize spend -- making corporate spend deliver meaningful value for the organization.
Emburse is recognized as a leader in expense management and accounts payable automation by analyst firm IDC, and has received multiple awards for innovation and its high levels of customer satisfaction.
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Travel Technology
businesswire | August 09, 2023
Surf Air Mobility Inc. , a regional air mobility platform aiming to sustainably connect the world’s communities, announced today that the transaction between Surf Air Mobility and Southern Airways (“Southern”) closed immediately prior to the listing of Surf Air Mobility on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “SRFM” on July 27, 2023. The combination of Surf Air Mobility and Southern will provide the basis for SAM’s anticipated expanded, nationwide regional air mobility platform. Following the close of the transaction on July 27, 2023, Surf Air Mobility has 69,742,981 basic shares outstanding and 71,603,186 fully diluted shares outstanding.
Operational and Financial Highlights, Surf Air and Southern together:
450,000 passengers across 48 cities with over 75,000 departures in 2022
Revenue of $100.6 million for the full year 2022, up 44.6% YoY on a combined basis2
Operating loss of $(111.7) million for the full year 2022, inclusive of $(33.4) million one-time transaction related expenses and $(38.2) million in stock based compensation
Cash on hand at July 27, 2023 of $34.7 million, with the ability to draw $100 million in cash advances under the GEM share subscription facility3
Aircraft financing facility with Jetstream for up to $450 million to finance further expansion
Fleet order with Textron Aviation Inc. to enable the growth of SAM’s fleet by up to 150 Cessna Grand Caravans
Exclusive provider to Textron Aviation Inc. of battery electric and hybrid electric powertrain technology for the Cessna Grand Caravan
Surf Air Mobility also announced that it will release its financial results for the second quarter of 2023 and provide outlook for the full year 2023 the week of August 14, 2023.
“Surf Air Mobility is building a regional air mobility platform to sustainably connect the world’s communities. We are thrilled to announce the completion of our transaction, combining Surf Air and Southern into Surf Air Mobility, the largest commuter airline in the US by scheduled departures. We are now well-positioned to build a platform that delivers accessible, affordable, and sustainable regional travel for our customers,” said Stan Little, CEO of Surf Air Mobility. “Our public listing is just the beginning, and we look forward to sharing our journey as we execute on our vision to advance the future of flight.”
Surf Air Mobility intends to accelerate the adoption of green flying by developing, together with its commercial partners, hybrid-electric and fully-electric powertrain technology to upgrade existing fleets. By creating a financing and services infrastructure to enable this transition at an industry-wide level, Surf Air Mobility believes it can bring electrified aircraft to market at scale and substantially reduce the cost and environmental impact of regional flying. Surf Air Mobility believes such cost and environmental impact reductions are achievable by the end of the decade, and that operating as a publicly-traded company and having efficient access to growth capital will enable and accelerate the implementation of its strategic plan.
Sudhin Shahani, co-founder of Surf Air Mobility, continued, “Our end-state is electrification, but our flywheel begins with flying more passengers via network expansion and providing solutions to operators via Aircraft-as-a-Service (ACaaS), which we believe will drive growth in the near- and mid-term. Surf Air Mobility is a scaled – and growing – regional air travel company today, and we believe our path to electrification via supplemental type certification (‘STC’) will position us as a capital efficient, technology-enabled, first mover in the regional air ecosystem.”
ABOUT SURF AIR MOBILITY
Surf Air Mobility is a Los Angeles-based regional air mobility platform expanding the category of regional air travel to reinvent flying through the power of electrification. In an effort to substantially reduce the cost and environmental impact of flying and as the operator of the largest commuter airline in the US, Surf Air Mobility intends to develop powertrain technology with its commercial partners to electrify existing fleets and bring electrified aircraft to market at scale. The management team has deep experience and expertise across aviation, electrification, and consumer technology.
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Hospitality Trends
prnewswire | July 12, 2023
Sojern, the leading travel marketing platform, today announced the acquisition of VenueLytics, the hospitality industry's most integrated guest experience platform serving independent hotels, resorts, chains and casinos. Sojern will incorporate VenueLytics' capabilities as an extension of the Sojern Travel Marketing Platform.
Sojern has long been a direct bookings driver for hotels—providing comprehensive digital advertising solutions that help travel marketers find, attract and convert new travelers, re-activate existing guests to build loyalty, and maximize net revenue per available room (RevPAR). This acquisition expands Sojern's Travel Marketing Platform to engage across the entire guest journey with VenueLytics' cutting-edge technology that includes an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered virtual concierge, real-time guest feedback and digital reputation management tools, and a guest marketing suite for email and text promotions. VenueLytics' solutions help marketing, operations, and front-desk teams better serve their guests with less resources required, drive incremental revenue, and maximize profit. With these additional features, Sojern can now help marketers find, attract, convert and engage travelers throughout their journey.
"This is an exciting step forward for our customers as we can empower hoteliers beyond advertising alone, expanding our offerings to be a true end-to-end marketing platform," said Mark Rabe, CEO of Sojern. "We are dedicated to providing the travel industry with innovative solutions that leverage data, AI and technology to drive results. VenueLytics' expertise in analyzing, unifying and activating data from various hotel management and marketing systems will allow Sojern to deepen our relationships in hospitality. This addition helps us to advance toward becoming the #1 travel marketing platform."
One of VenueLytics key customers is Grupo Posadas, the largest hotel company in Mexico with over 180 resorts and hotels. Posadas Director of Quality, Standards and Innovation, Leslie Gomez, commented, "By using VenueLytics AI Concierge throughout the guest journey, Posadas has increased Ancillary Revenue with more than 53K requests over the last 9 months. Our guests satisfaction improved more than 19 percentage points (pp) in NPS (Net Promoter Score) from the guests who had contact with our digital concierge experience."
By extending its platform with VenueLytics, Sojern can now support hotel marketers with an all-in-one platform that drives guests directly to a property, enables upsell mid-stay, remarketing post-stay, and builds long term loyalty. In addition to the multichannel offerings of Sojern, VenueLytics provides the ability to engage customers in an expanded multichannel network that includes SMS, Email, WiFi, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, ChatBot, Alexa, Google Home and other social media and third party apps. This allows Sojern to expand into generative AI with cutting edge tools to drive and optimize booking value for hotels.
VenueLytics Co-Founder and CEO Baskar Manivannan commented, "We have partnered with Sojern for more than a year, and joining forces will strengthen our customer base and reputation while enabling us to offer the hospitality and travel industry a wider and timely range of solutions. With AI, data analytics and personalized multichannel guest engagement at the backbone of what we do, we have a shared vision to empower hotels around the world to drive profitability, and truly elevate guest experience and satisfaction."
Last month, Sojern announced the latest version of its Sojern Travel Marketing Platform with enhanced AI powered audiences. With this acquisition, it further demonstrates the company's rigor and success at integrating new technology and scaling it globally. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sojern has reported previously that it is profitable, has driven more than $10 billion in global travel bookings, and serves over 10,000 customers annually around the world leveraging its long-standing AI capabilities.
The acquisition will deepen Sojern's hotel expertise in North America where VenueLytics has been focused. VenueLytics will now be able to support the global hospitality industry as an extension of the Sojern Travel Marketing Platform. To learn more about how this acquisition can benefit your travel marketing campaigns, please visit Sojern's website.
About Sojern
Sojern is a top digital marketing tool for travel marketers. Multichannel marketing from the company boosts direct demand. AI and traveler intent data enable these solutions. It is the leading travel marketing tool designed to help marketers overcome travel buying cycle challenges. It provides unparalleled traveler information and automatic optimization to match its clients with the right travelers. In addition, the company optimizes across the platform to help clients grow and profit.
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