The corporate travel industry is changing rapidly, with international markets continuing to open up to European businesses through improved transportation and advancement in communications.
Business is now becoming more global; whether your thinking about the ambition of China’s new megaproject ‘One belt, one road.’ or an SME travelling internationally; raising capital, meeting with suppliers, or drumming up new business, the ability to manage this process more effectively is becoming a vital cost-saving exercise for many companies.
We are excited to announce that we are leading an 8 million EUR series A round in Roomex and welcome the team to the #Draperclan.
As we continue to expand our portfolio, Roomex demonstrates our commitment to investing in Irish technology companies and their talented leaders. Taking a seat on the board will be Nicola McClafferty, who leads our irish office, stating that “Despite the innovation we have seen across consumer travel, managing business travel remains a real pain point for most businesses. Companies either manage the process manually or outsource to a service-led travel agent which is inefficient and expensive.”
The corporate travel market is currently worth over a trillion a year, yet the process of booking travel remains manual, time-consuming and expensive for small and medium-sized companies. Traditionally dominated by consumer platforms or service-led travel management companies, travellers are forced to keep receipts and submit expenses, bookers spend hours searching for the best corporate rates, while accounts teams spend hours reconciling expenses to credit cards.
Nicola continues “Roomex is transforming this market providing SME’s with a one-stop travel management platform, delivering ease and efficiency from booking to billing. We are incredibly excited to be working with Jack and the team as they continue to grow the business in the coming years.”
Having operated in the hotel booking market for over 10 years, the team have deep expertise and relationships. Co-founded by Jack Donaghy (CEO) and Karl Glennon (CTO), Roomex allows businesses to book hotel rooms globally through its platform, enabling its clients to save time and money by centralising all bookings and invoices in one account. Having achieved significant growth across the UK and Ireland in the last couple of years, Roomex has ambitious plans for the business. This funding will be used to grow the team, continue to develop a market pleading platform and drive international expansion.
The Roomex platform provides SMEs with an automated, frictionless way for companies to manage their corporate travel- from booking to billing. 99% of all their bookings are processed without any human intervention from Roomex; clients simply login into their account and book directly. With competitive live rates at every hotel in the world, the company is now serving over 50,000 business travellers from across the UK and Ireland.
Check out Roomex here, as well as co-founders Jack Donaghy and Karl Glennon.