Travel Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) group Travelsoft has announced the acquisition of B2B booking engine provider to travel companies, Travel Compositor, as part of the group’s strategy to become the world’s leading travel SaaS.
Spanish headquartered Travel Compositor is well known for its ‘multi-destination’ booking engines and is well established in Southern Europe, as well as growing in emerging markets such as Latin America and Asia.
Founded in 2014, Travel Compositor employs 90 staff and operates a SaaS model, generating €1 billion (approx. USD 1.06 b) in bookings and €11.5 million (approx. USD 12.23 m) in revenues annually.
This makes Travel Compositor the third company of Travelsoft group, which was founded in Paris in 2000 and specializes in software that makes it easier for the tourism industry to sell travel packages by automating production and booking, efficiently handling data for marketing purposes, and increasing conversion rates.
With the inclusion of Travel Compositor, the group will now transact bookings in the order of €5 billion annually through over 300 tour operators connected to 600 suppliers in over 40 countries, mainly in Europe and the Americas.
Employing over 200 travel technology experts globally, Travelsoft will generate revenues of over €35 million (approx. USD 37.21 m) (including annual recurring revenues (ARR) of €32 million) and will have an R&D investment capacity of over €5 million (approx. USD 5.32 m) per year.
In 2022 the company acquired Germany-headquartered Traffics, which was founded in 1999 and offers innovative and customer-oriented development of consulting, search and booking systems for more than 6,000 travel agencies as well as renowned travel portals, airlines, hotels and travel suppliers – and the company has more than €1.5 billion euros in brokered travel sales per year.
Whilst Travelsoft is also the holding company of French-headquartered Orchestra, which was founded in 2000 and allows travel professionals to produce, administer, distribute and manage a complete leisure offer – including packages, hotel nights, airline tickets, dynamic packages and ‘aÌ la carte’ – on all distribution channels with €2.5 billion of travel sales per year through its platform.
Each of the Travelsoft Group’s companies – Travel Compositor, Traffics and Orchestra – will maintain strong autonomy, including keeping their names and brands, and benefits from implementing inter-company synergies that make the most sense in their respective products and markets.
Manuel Aragoneìs, Co-Founder of Travel Compositor, says: “We are very excited to join such a global project to build-out further our tech edge and business. Less than nine years after the creation of Travel Compositor, we are entering an exciting new phase of accelerated growth in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.”
Meanwhile his Co-Founder Vicente Rossello sees: “Significant potential for synergies and new developments between the different platforms of the Travelsoft group, particularly in terms of direct connectivity with airlines and hotels and in the various upcoming innovations.”
Christian Sabbagh, Founder & CEO of Travelsoft adds: “We share with Manuel and Vicente an entrepreneurial culture that facilitated this merger and welcome them to our group. It is a new step in Travelsoft’s strategy to serve its customers in all geographies with platforms adapted to each ecosystem and sharing best practices. The need for booking platforms is growing and we see many opportunities for consolidation, so watch out for more acquisitions as we build the world’s leading travel SaaS.”
As a result of the most recent acquisition:
- Christian Sabbagh, founder & President of Travelsoft, remains the majority shareholder of Travelsoft, alongside the two founders of Travel Compositor(Manuel Aragones and Vicente Rossello), as well as the two founders of Traffics (Salim Sahi and Jens Muskewitz).
- Shares in startups MOGU and Top Group Express owned by Travel Compositor will also join Travelsoft.
- The investors who participated in Travel Compositor’s only fundraising round in 2016– including Caixa, Capital Risk, Inspirit (Didac Lee), Hotusa Ventures, and Venture Cap II – will exit at 100%, multiplying their investment by 12 to 15.
The operation was made possible thanks in particular to the teams of Cambon Partners, Ennea Capital Partners, the PGA firm, and all the following participants:
- Acquirer: Travelsoft (Christian Sabbagh, Nathalie Eveleigh)
- Sellers: Travel Compositor (Manuel Aragones, Vicente Rossello, Miguel Angel Garoz)
- Acquirer M&A advisor: Cambon Partners (Morgann Lesné, Min Liu, Maxime Wuthrich, Simon Bozec)
- Sellers M&A advisor: Ennea Capital Partners (Simon Schiller, Jan-Frederik Valentin, Karla Pons, Francesco Terragni)
- Acquirer Corporate Lawyer: Piotraut Giné Avocats (Raphaël Piotraut, Myriam Zendjebil)
- Acquirer Financial and Tax Due Diligence: EY (Adolfo Becerril De La Fuente, Borja Suárez, Adrián Rincón Gutiérrez)
- Acquirer Legal Due Diligence: Cuatrecasas (José Luis Gaudier, Xavier Morera, Isabel Gandoy, Juan Cervantes)
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