Concur co-founder Steve Singh has led an investment group in the acquisition of US-based TMC Direct Travel, which now plans to expand into Europe and continue to work with its partner ATPI.
Corporate travel entrepreneur Singh’s current portfolio already includes travel tech platform Spotnana, meetings management specialist Troop and payment and expense provider Center.
“It's a big business," Singh said of Direct Travel. "It's a $300 million-plus business that's profitable and growing 10 per cent per year.
Singh said he expects he can push that growth "meaningfully above market rates for the foreseeable future", hitting the 15 per cent to 20 per cent range by 2025.
Direct Travel currently has more than 4,500 clients, largely in North America and mostly in the mid-market space, although it also has enterprise customers including PayPal. Direct Travel has also been working as a partner organisation with UK-based ATPI Group, known as Direct ATPI Global Travel, since 2017.
"ATPI is a very good partner," said Singh. "We'll continue to partner with them and serve enterprise customers on a multi-continent basis."
He added: "We'll grow in both North America and expand into other geographies, like the EU. We'll expand also further into the enterprise segment, and we have a meaningful opportunity to expand into group travel, which is not a well-served market segment."
The investors involved in the Direct Travel acquisition include Singh's Madrona Ventures, Durable Capital Partners and Top Tier Capital Partners along with Blackstone Credit & Insurance. Financial details of the deal, which closed on Tuesday (2 April), were not disclosed, although Singh said the purchase price was "meaningful".
Singh said Direct Travel’s growth will come in partnership with Spotnana, Troop and Center, which he described as "redoing foundational elements of the travel ecosystem".
"If we can combine the best of Spotnana, Troop and Center from a product point of view, along with AI that is being developed at Direct Travel and the service engine of Direct Travel, we can deliver a far better client experience than anybody else in the industry," Singh said added "That is the core premise behind the acquisition of Direct Travel."
Direct Travel will continue to support clients on their preferred platforms, although it will have the philosophy that the trio in the tech stack will "deliver a better value proposition to our customers," he said.
"We think, driven by customer demand, we are going to see our customers move to that new stack over time, but it's entirely up to the customer on what schedule that they want to move," added Singh.