An Austin startup that wants to change how companies book business travel has raised $2 million for expansion.
Tripchamp, which is launching a corporate travel booking platform, received the funding from the Bird Group, owners of Amadeus India, a leading travel technology provider in India.
The four-year-old company previously received $4 million from a syndicate of individual investors.
CEO Alex Greystoke said Tripchamp provides users with a one-stop online marketplace for private, public and negotiated air and hotel fares.
The system uses artificial intelligence to learn about the user's preferences, and returns options tailored to the individual. That eliminates the need for comparative searches across multiple sites, he said.
"It understands what their needs are and how those needs and wants change over time, and then provides the best products," Greystoke said. "Providing a marketplace where anybody can see all the options in one place is a pretty big deal."
The company is targeting two groups of customers -- medium-sized businesses that frequently book international and corporate travel agents.
Tripchamp charges customers a variable net rate of 2 to 6 percent depending on the volume of monthly business.
The platform is currently in testing-mode, with plans to launch by the end of May. It also plans to add rental car services to the offerings.
The new investment will allow Tripchamp to integrate its technology with the Bird Group, which will enable it to sell its services to thousands of agents in the Indian subcontinent, Greystoke said.
"We become a technology solutions for their agents, and we're really excited about that," he said.
Tripchamp, which has 25 employees, is a division of LF Technology Development Corp., based in England.
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