Navan, a travel and expense management super app announced its agreement to acquire Bangalore-based Tripeur, a travel management company for an undisclosed amount.
Tripeur, a corporate travel experience solution, serves the $35 billion travel market in India.
The agreement marks the fifth acquisition for the Navan Group in two years, in markets including UK, Germany, Sweden, and Spain.
“Employees are tech-savvy and require online, mobile-first solutions designed for people, whether located in the U.S., UK, India, or anywhere else,” said Navan CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen. “Regardless of their geographic location, global companies are no longer willing to compromise on tech. The world has changed.”
Ranked as the world’s seventh-largest business travel market with an anticipated annual growth rate of 9%, the historically manual region requires mobile-first technology to cater to the dynamic demands of Indian consumers. India leads the world in per capita mobile data consumption, making it essential to prioritize mobile-centric solutions.
Tripeur has spearheaded the transformation of the Indian travel market from offline to online. This acquisition enables Navan to solve for local obstacles, such as direct connections to local low-cost carriers, access to atypical inventory, including booked taxis and automated GST reconciliation for employee expenses.
Tripeur will enable the Navan team to scale and localize its technology in order to serve our growing list of enterprise customers that demand the Navan experience be available globally.
“There is unprecedented demand for high-quality corporate travel solutions in India,” said Thiagarajan Rajagopalan, Tripeur co-founder and CEO. “Navan’s scalability, combined with Tripeur’s localized technology, inventory, and support, ensures the group will offer unparalleled products and services in the region.”
Founded in 2015 by Thiagarajan Rajagopalan and Sajit Chacko and backed by investors including Pentathlon Ventures and Incubate Fund, Bengaluru-based Tripeur enables businesses to manage their entire travel experience on a single platform.
“Enabling our global enterprise clients at scale includes having a robust, market-relevant solution in India that seamlessly taps into local inventory,” says Navan APAC General Manager, Tim Gibson. “Tripeur’s understanding of the market, in addition to their deep inventory and payments connectivity, further solidifies Navan’s position as a global all-in-one travel, corporate card, and expense management solution.”
Source: Economic Times