TripActions has reached an agreement to acquire leading German travel management company Comtravo in a deal it says will see half of its overall business originating in Europe.
The purchase of Berlin-based Comtravo follows TripActions’ acquisition of the UK’s Reed & Mackay last May and the addition of $275 million in Series F funding in October. It takes its investment in Europe to more than $400 million, according to the company.
Comtravo was ranked the tenth largest TMC in Germany last year and additionally serves the Austrian, Swiss and Scandinavian markets.
As well as its client base, regional expertise and inventory, the Comtravo deal delivers “specialised invoicing and VAT technology that will contribute additional cost- and time-saving offerings”, says TripActions.
Comtravo itself has made a number of acquisitions since its founding in 2015 by chief executive Michael Riegel and managing director Jannik Wässa (pictured), including Hamburg's BTO24 and six business travel centres from insolvent agency Bühler at the end of 2020.
According to its most recent publicly available financial results, Comtravo in 2019 served more than 900 medium-sized companies in the DACH region and employed around 120 staff. Sales increased 121 per cent in 2019, hitting €36.8 million. Today, it serves more than 2,000 customers from 13 locations across Germany and has over 250 employees, according to its website.
Its customers include Hansgrohe, LG Electronics, Viessmann and Home24, while among the TMC’s investors are Deutsche Bank, Microsoft’s venture fund M12 and Joop Drechsel, former global CEO at BCD Travel. It has landed more than €40 million in funding to date.
TripActions says the addition will brings its total client base to more than 7,500 customers across 94 countries with a combined pre-Covid annual travel spend of nearly $6 billion, with half of the group’s business now in Europe.
“When we looked across the industry, it became clear that the TripActions Group is the best positioned to take the European market,” said Riegel. “With our strong customer and supplier relations, Comtravo will focus on ensuring that the combined group has the best product offering in the region.”
TripActions CEO Ariel Cohen added: “TripActions is on the fast-track to dominating travel and expense on a global scale. We've invested heavily across Europe over the past year and Comtravo is the perfect addition to build out our regional offering.”