TripActions, a corporate travel and expenses company, has raised a combination of equity and debt at a post-money valuation of $9.2 billion, up from its prior valuation of $7.5 billion. The funding is a $154 million equity round from investors, including returning investors Andreessen Horowitz and Premji Invest, and a $150 million structured financing deal from Coatue.
The deal comes weeks after the Palo Alto-based company was said to have filed confidentially to go public in the second quarter of next year at a $12 billion valuation. Totaling $304 million, the Series G financing has been in the works since at least May, confirming earlier Bloomberg reports that the travel company was seeking financing at a higher valuation.
Other investors in the company include Base Partners, Elad Gil, Greenoaks Capital Management, Zeev Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures and Addition Ventures. As part of the transaction, Premji Invest’s Sandesh Patnam will join TripActions board of directors. Coatue Ventures’ Dan Rose will join as a board observer.
In a release announcing the deal, TripActions noted that the funding will be used for global expansion, building off of its expense management launch in Europe and new offices in Portugal, Germany, France and the U.K. The company also acquired a number of travel management businesses, adding to its now more than 2,500 employees.
Why the deal now, ahead of a looming IPO? TripActions didn’t comment on any public listing plans, but it’s not unique to see a company raise ahead of a financial event of that scale. IPOs take a long time, and are expensive; so TripActions could be bringing on strategic investors to help guide the process, or just land cash to give it buffer room in case its timeline change due to market volatility.
As we know from this past year, big valuations and lots of cash don’t mean much as a signal of business stability. That said, travel startups had it especially hard in the beginning of the pandemic, and a recovery shown through investor capital is clearly worth noting. The company expanded its business travel platform by bringing on fintech and expenses into the mix, a diversified yet competitive world to dig into.
TripActions didn’t share any specific financials, but stated in the release that its expense management platform had more than a 7.5x spend volume growth last quarter, and that gross bookings for business travel are up more than 5x year over year.
TechCrunch reached out to TripActions for more information regarding the raise and IPO, as well as expansion plans, but has not yet heard back as of time of publication.
Source @TechCrunch
