A Certify report states that globally the average cost of a business journey is a whopping $117.6 billion annually. It is one of all the highest costs that any agency looks to control. Enter Travelstop, an AI-powered SaaS platform to simplify business travel and cost management for corporates in Asia.
The fee control startup offers smooth-to-use equipment that streamlines the commercial enterprise travel booking technique while automating price reporting and presenting significant insights. Travelstop gives 3 core product functions: Travel, Expenses, and Insights, flawlessly included to offer a seamless enjoy.
The Singapore-centered startup was turned into 2016 by way of ex-Yahoo executives Prashant Kirtane, Vijay Aggarwal, and Altaf Dhamani. The trio had in 2014 based Travelmob, which changed into received by way of tour startup HomeAway, which was obtained with Expedia’s aid in 2015.
Why begin up again?
TravelMob turned into a holiday rentals marketplace focused on Asia. The co-founders had raised a seed round of $1 million from Jungle Ventures and Accel. After exiting the startup, they decided to build Travelstop late last yr. In April, the platform raised a seed investment of $1.2 million from SeedPlus, with participation from several journey industry veterans from Expedia and Yahoo.
On Wednesday, Travelstop raised $three million pre-Series A investment led with the aid of Accel Partners. The spherical additionally saw participation from Strive (formerly GREE Ventures) and current investor SeedPlus. As part of this new spherical, Accel’s Prashanth Prakash will be becoming a member of the enterprise’s Board of Directors. The crew plans to use the new funds to put money into generation and boost up adoption of Travelstop across Asia.
“While at Travelmob and in all my previous roles, cost management changed into by and large a guide procedure, and the corporate tour equipment we have been using had no longer developed for decades. The whole experience, proper from coping with enterprise tour to costs, became extremely frustrating. We used to spend a notable quantity of time doing repetitive and administrative paintings,” Prashant says.
Business models of these conventional corporate tour control companies have no longer evolved for many years. They provide commercial enterprise owners with no visibility on business travel and expense spending.
“So with our passion for constructing easy and elegant merchandise, mixed with our revel in Asia, we notion it became the proper time to automate, modernize, and simplify the entire experience – from journey making plans to rate reimbursements. Using technology, we need to help employers preserve prices low, allow a diploma of flexibility for enterprise journey, and acquire statistics and costs — all in an unmarried, smooth-to-use interface,” Prashant says.
Travelstop has been built using the next-technology server-much less structure that is absolutely managed within the cloud for automatic scaling. It makes use of non-stop, supervised gadget mastering to improve the guidelines engine in the cloud.
What does it do?
The platform uses gadget mastering and AI-powered personalization to make flight and inn guidelines, permitting travelers to ebook within mins.
“We examine from indicators like frequently booked flights and motels in a company, distance from workplace or occasion place, critiques, and private choices,” Prashant says.
It also gives functions like ‘Book for Others’, permitting journey managers to be more efficient, and bill billing, permitting companies to pay a single bill for their travel bookings. The platform also allows employers to pre-approve a budget for enterprise journey; with this, personnel has greater autonomy and versatility to ebook trips based totally on their possibilities (as an example: fly low-cost carrier, however, live in a five-famous person lodge).
“Employers can also install an included journey policy if they need more manipulate. Flight or lodge reservations that aren’t in step with the policy are flagged to enhance compliance,” Prashant adds.
The platform additionally offers included tools to make expense reporting a breeze. Travelstop works with any business prices (now not just journey related).
It also lets in for streamlined approval workflows and computerized facts circulating their accounting software, lowering errors and boosting productiveness.
Travelstop’s records-driven insights can assist reduce fees and expenditure. They permit reviewing prices with the aid of enterprise, branch, crew, or at a man or woman level, to make higher selections for cost financial savings. It best prices for every lively user, making it a low-cost option.
