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Perk (formerly TravelPerk) raises $160 million Series D to accelerate global growth

5 MIN READ

  • New $160 million in funding shows investors’ confidence in business travel recovery and brings total investment raised to date by Perk (formerly TravelPerk) to $294 million
  • The funding will be used to accelerate Perk’s growth in the US and Europe and its mission to be the best global travel platform by fueling investment in product innovations and pursuing additional acquisitions
  • The round, led by Greyhound Capital, with participation from existing investors, continues Perk’s momentum following its acquisition of US competitor NexTravel in January this year.
Chicago, London and Barcelona, Thursday 29th April 2021: Perk , the largest and fastest growing global travel management platform, today announced it has raised $160 million in Series D equity and debt funding to fuel the next phase of its rapid global growth. The round was led by Greyhound Capital, with participation from existing investors, and brings the total investment raised to date to $294 million.
The funding will be used to accelerate Perk’s mission to create the world’s best travel platform, with a particular focus on growth in the US and Europe and on product innovations designed for the changing needs of travelers and small-medium sized businesses post-pandemic. The global impact of COVID-19 means that flexibility, safety and sustainability are more important than ever within business travel and Perk will be focused on enhancing its offerings in these areas, through innovation and acquisitions. Perk is also hiring heavily and, after not making any layoffs during the pandemic, it expects to rapidly grow its 500-person team as the travel market grows through late 2021 and 2022.
“There will always be a need for business travel. But the events of the last year have fundamentally changed businesses’ expectations and preferences”, said Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of Perk. “Over the last 12 months, we’ve been constantly innovating to address the changing needs for travelers navigating the complex travel environment during COVID, and kept growing as a company during one of the worst crises the industry has ever seen - doubling our travel budget under management in this period.
“We are very confident in the return of business travel this year, and this investment will allow us to accelerate our ambitious growth plan in crucial markets like the US and Europe and deliver on travelers’ changing priorities as safety, sustainability and greater flexibility become essential requirements for all travel.”
Perk combines the best of business and leisure travel to provide its customers with the world’s best travel platform for booking, managing and reporting business trips, using its proprietary technology and best-in-class 24/7 traveler support. The Perk platform hosts the world’s largest bookable travel inventory, allowing travelers to seamlessly compare, book and invoice trains, cars, flights, hotels and apartments from a range of providers including Kayak, Expedia, Booking.com, and Airbnb. This offers business travelers unparalleled freedom and flexibility while providing companies with control over their travel spend.
The Series D is another milestone for Perk after a year that has seen the company develop and release a range of new solutions for travel in a COVID and post-COVID world. This includes TravelSafe , Perk’s first product for the wider travel industry, which made Perk’s real-time data on the latest COVID travel restrictions available through an API. The company also completed its first ever acquisitions, acquiring risk management startup Albatross in 2020, and US-based competitor NexTravel in January 2021, cementing its position as an industry leader and significantly expanding its US presence. Perk also continued to improve and future-proof existing products such as FlexiTravel , the industry-first flexible booking tool that manages last minute cancellations and guarantees 80% of the trip refunded.
“There is no doubt that from 2021 onwards the average business trip will look very different to how it did in 2019,” **said Pogos Saiadian, investor at Greyhound Capital. “**We are confident that business travel will recover and thrive in the years ahead. We also believe that people will, more than ever before, need a platform like Perk that has deep inventory, excellent ‘seven-star’ customer service, provides a great traveler experience and integrates with the broader tech-stack.
“We believe that this is a huge long-term opportunity, and as customers ourselves, we see first-hand the tremendous value that Perk provides across organizations, from finance to admin and the travellers themselves. The fact the company is beating growth expectations already for this year further supports our belief that Perk is a true market leader, and we are delighted to be supporting the next stage of the company’s growth with this investment.”
About Perk
Perk is the next-generation business travel platform pioneering the future of business travel. Perk’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.
Perk 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 worldwide to get the most out of their travel.
Backed by world-class investors like DST, Kinnevik, Target Global, Felix Capital, Spark Capital, Heartcore, LocalGlobe, Amplo, 14W—investors in some of the most disruptive companies in tech including Zalando, Slack, Trello, Twitter, Farfetch and Delivery Hero — Perk is reinventing business travel with an end-to-end solution that works.
About Greyhound Capital
Greyhound Capital is a global growth equity investment firm focused on technology-enabled businesses that improve people's everyday lives. The firm seeks to partner with outstanding teams and support them in building enduring companies. Greyhound Capital backed companies include Revolut, Guideline, Freee, Careem, Brex, Marqeta, Coalition, N26, Toss, among others.