Skift Take
Justin Dawes
The travel technology industry is ripe for consolidation.
Industry experts have been saying that all year, and it looks like they’re right.
In the past two and a half months alone, there have been at least 15 acquisitions involving travel technology companies.
These include cloud hospitality provider Mews making its ninth acquisition, SITA buying an airport check-in software company, and Amadeus buying a biometric authentication company for $348 million.
Investment bank AGC Partners is among the banks that sees an increase in merger and acquisition activity and expects more activity next year.
AGC said “real action is yet to come.”
The firm published an analysis on the topic in April and said the stage was set for more deals, including an improving financing environment and the fact that tech private equity firms have roughly $300 billion to put to work, AGC said.
In the 15 transactions outlined below, the sale price was rarely disclosed, which often (but not always) means it was a small deal, especially when a startup is acquiring another company.
But this is not surprising, since post-pandemic venture capitalists will favor companies with strong business models. Meanwhile, startups that raised large amounts of money during the pandemic have succumbed to expensive exceptions from investors, and many of those with weaker business models have closed down (such as Cabana, which closed down after failing to find investors or buyers).
And then deep-pocketed companies can come in and buy up the talent and expand their tech stacks on the cheap.
AGC has named several companies it believes are well-positioned to make further acquisitions, some of which include: IBS Software, Guesty, Hostaway, Mews, Travelport, Tripleseat, Cvent and Cendyn.
Amadeus, Guestie, and others
Amadeus plans to expand its biometric services to airports after acquiring VisionBox for $348 million in April (and acquiring payments company Voxel for $123 million in March).
Paris-based Travelsoft in May acquired four companies: technology companies TravelgateX, Atcor Technology, Travel Connection Technology and French travel industry publisher and events company Eventis Media Group. Travelsoft primarily provides technology to travel agencies and tour operators for selling and marketing travel packages.
Tel Aviv-based Guesty, a property management system for vacation rentals, acquired Rentals United, a distribution service in the space, in May. (Guesty’s CEO participated in a panel at Skift’s inaugural Data & AI Summit in June.)
Hotel distribution technology company DerbySoft announced in April that it was expanding into the aviation industry through the acquisition of Pkfare.
Muse completes ninth acquisition
Mews, a cloud-based property management system startup for independent hotels, announced in May that it had acquired Germany-based HS3 Hotelsoftware, an on-premise property management system.
The Mews system is used in more than 700 hotels, apartments, hostels and campsites in the DACH region. According to Mews, 76% of its German customers are small and medium-sized hotels.
HS3 Hotelsoftware has introduced over 3,500 clients to Mews.
“The DACH region has quickly become one of our fastest growing markets, with more independent hoteliers looking to modernize their technology,” Mews CEO Matt Welle said in a statement. “The acquisition of HS3 Hotelsoftware is an important step towards enabling more German hoteliers to move to the cloud, tripling the number of rooms in Germany managed via Mews.”
Muse raised $110 million in March 2024 and $185 million in late 2022. The company’s founder, Richard Bartol, said some of those funds will be used for growth through acquisitions.
SITA acquires Materna IPS
Airline-owned SITA, which provides technology to much of the air travel industry, said in May it was acquiring Materna IPS, a passenger check-in software for airports and airlines. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Materna IPS products include software for self bag drop, check-in and boarding.
SITA said the contract was part of its efforts to improve passenger travel processes ahead of a projected doubling of air traffic by 2040.
SITA CEO David Lavorel said in a statement that the deal was the organisation’s “largest acquisition ever”.
Holidu acquires Clubrural to expand vacation rental software
Holidu, a Munich-based vacation rental booking site with operational software for hosts, said in May it had acquired Madrid-based Clubrural, a vacation rental booking site for rural properties in Spain and Portugal.
This will add 28,000 villas and apartments to Holidu’s total portfolio of 37,000 properties. Holidu currently has more than 500 employees in Europe.
Holidu raised $102 million in 2022 to expand in Europe.
“Strategic acquisitions like this create powerful growth drivers for us, both for hosts and guests, and accelerate the growth of our directly managed accommodations portfolio,” Johannes Siebers, CEO and co-founder of Holidu, said in a statement.
Access Group Expands Hotel Technology with Acquisition of SHR
Access Group, a provider of hotel operations software, announced in June that it had acquired hotel and casino technology company SHR.
Access Group will combine SHR’s products with GuestLine, a property management system it acquired last year, which will bring 2,000 hotel clients to GuestLine’s 3,000 properties.
UK-based Access Group said the acquisition contributes to its vision of becoming a full-service software company for independent hotels, as well as national and regional hotel chains. The company said the acquisition will enable it to cater to larger hotel groups and their more complex needs.
Texas-based SHR’s software products include central reservation systems, booking engines, customer relationship management, revenue management systems and digital tools for marketing and loyalty.
Access Group also provides software to over a dozen other industries and has over 7,000 employees worldwide. The hospitality division provides a range of software products to over 20,000 hotels, bar chains, restaurants and leisure operators.
Navan Group subsidiary acquires corporate travel and events business
Corporate travel management company Navan Group completed its sixth acquisition in three years earlier in June.
Navan subsidiary Reid & Mackay, a corporate travel and events management company, has acquired a similar company called Regent International, based in Italy.
Regent International serves more than 200 clients across sectors including professional services, healthcare, technology and media.
Business Travel News Europe ranked Navan Group as Europe’s fourth-largest travel management company in 2023, with estimated 2022 revenues of 2.8 billion euros ($3 billion).
Three ground transportation software startups acquired
Digital bus ticketing companies are growing rapidly around the world in an area that is technologically lagging far behind, with many operators still recording sales by pen and paper.
Travelier, which provides a booking platform and operations software for intercity bus and ferry operators, announced in May that it had acquired Denibus, a Brazil-based online ticketing platform for intercity buses.
Travelier (formerly BookAway Group) currently operates seven brands in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Deonibus claims to have over 300 intercity bus operators as customers in Brazil, covering 80% of the country and serving 30 million travelers per year.
BuuPass, a startup digitizing intercity bus travel in Africa, announced in April that it had acquired Nigeria- and South Africa-focused bus ticketing company QuickBus, which brings 5,000 new routes and more than 100 bus operators to BuuPass.
Based in Kenya, BuuPass currently operates routes to 16 African countries including Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Nigeria and Ghana, and currently has 650,000 monthly users.
Montreal-based intercity ground transport booking platform Busbud announced in May that it had acquired South African company Ratality, which provides revenue management software for ground travel operators.
The deal is in line with Busbud’s plans to build a full suite of software services for ground travel operators. The company has been acquiring companies to expand its services for operators and consumers. Busbud currently has more than 350 customers worldwide.
365 Retail Market Enters Hotel Industry with Acquisition of Impulsify
Retail technology provider 365 Retail Markets announced in May that it was entering the hotel industry with the acquisition of Impulsify.
Denver-based Impulsify offers software and kiosks that hotels can use to run self-service stores for guests. The company says its technology is used in more than 1,000 hotels in the U.S.
Michigan-based 365 said its technology powers food retail spaces such as corporate offices, manufacturing and distribution facilities and education campuses.
Photo credit: Pictured: Mews check-in station at Strawberry Hotel
