Mar 1, 2025

Key Points There have been at least 17 travel tech acquisitions since the start of 2025, with small deals leading the trend. Private equity firms are driving a 'feeding frenzy' in the travel tech sector, with a focus on modernizing payment systems. Significant acquisitions include Shift4's $2.5 billion purchase of Global Blue and Flywire's $330 million acquisition of Sertifi. Summary The travel tech industry has seen at least 17 acquisitions so far in 2025, predominantly driven by smaller deals. Private equity firms, with substantial funds to deploy, are leading a surge in acquisitions, particularly in modernizing payment systems. Notable transactions include Shift4's acquisition of Global Blue for $2.5 billion and Flywire's purchase of Sertifi for $330 million, highlighting a significant focus on enhancing payment technologies within the travel sector. Small deals are leading unprecedented M&A activity in travel tech right now, and you'll see that they dominate the list below. As we recently reported , private equity firms have accumulated an estimated $3 trillion that they need to deploy, and roughly $300 billion of that is earmarked for tech. Investment bank AGC Partners says these PE-backed players are going on a “feeding frenzy” to acquire smaller companies and consolidate their respective markets. One area where larger deals are emerging is in travel payments. There have been two such deals in payment tech in recent weeks: Shift4 plans to purchase Global Blue for $2.5 billion, and Flywire just bought Sertifi for $330 million. Paired with two other big deals in the past couple of years, there seems to be a pattern emerging. Amadeus last year acquired Voxel for $123.2 million. And Sabre acquired Conferma Pay in 2022 for $72.5 million. All of these companies are trying to get ahead of a big shift in travel toward modern payment systems, as the industry races to catch up with retail. A survey by Amadeus in 2023 found that ease of payment is the top tech issue for travelers over the next 10 years. Overall, there have been at least 17 acquisitions in travel tech announced since the start of 2025. Here is the breakdown. Shift4 to Acquire Global Blue for $2.5 Billion Shift4 , a payments and ecommerce tech company, plans to acquire Global Blue for $2.5 billion. Shift4 provides payments tech to industries including airlines, hotels, food and beverage, and more. Global Blue specializes in tax-free shopping and payment tech, connecting retail and hospitality businesses with international travelers. Shoppers can claim value-added tax (VAT) refunds through the Global Blue platform, and the tech enables them to pay for goods in their own currency. The company’s tech is used in more than 400,000 retail and hospitality locations. (Travelers can get VAT refunds on certain goods — like clothing, accessories, electronics — in the European Union, the UK, and multiple countries in Asia and other regions.) Shift4 says that the deal opens up an entirely new market for the company. Global Blue’s merchant solutions will be added to Shift4’s global payments platform to deliver an enhanced end-to-end experience for its merchants. Shift4 plans to acquire Global Blue for $7.50 per common share in cash. Global Blue will no longer be listed on any public stock exchange following the transaction, which is expected to close by the third quarter of 2025. Flywire Acquires Sertifi for $330 Million Flywire, which provides cross-border payments tech for travel companies, has acquired Sertifi for $330 million in a bid to expand services for hotels. Flywire's platform is meant to help travel companies simplify and streamline payments from consumers. Most clients are tour operators, destination management companies, and hotels. The company has about 4,500 clients globally across all the industries it serves, including education and health care. The platform by Chicago-based Sertifi is meant to help hotels streamline events contracting, group bookings, and their associated payments. The company has 20,000 hotel clients, including brands under Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt, as well as luxury independent hotels like Sage Hospitality Group and the Corinthia Hotel in London. Sertifi was founded in 2008. HomeToGo to Acquire Interhome HomeToGo , an online marketplace for vacation rentals, said in February that it plans to acquire Interhome for up to $260 million (€250 million). The purchase price includes $166.5 million (€160 million) upfront and up to $93.6 million (€90 million) in deferred payments for up to four years. Interhome (Germany) is an online marketplace for vacation rentals owned by the Hotelplan Group, which is part of the Migros Corporation. TravelPerk Buys Expense Management Startup Yokoy TravelPerk , the corporate travel platform, acquired the expense management startup Yokoy. TravelPerk plans to integrate Yokoy’s tech to become an all-in-one corporate travel and expense platform. TravelPerk recently raised $200 million for the transition and international growth. Mews , the hotel tech startup, recently bought its 12th company. The company bought New Zealand-based Clarity Hospitality Software Solutions, which provides property and event management systems for hundreds of hotels groups, event venues and independent hotels in the APAC region and the UK. Landfolk Expands into Italy Landfolk , a vacation rental platform founded by former Airbnb employees, acquired Danitalia.com to expand into Italy. Denmark-based Landfolk says it helps owners rent their vacation homes during the majority of the year when they normally would sit empty. The startup had more than 3,000 homes in its portfolio in Denmark, Norway, Germany, and Sweden. The acquisition gives it more than 130 homes in Italy. Landfolk raised $11.2 million in 2024. Yardi Acquires Deskpass and Hubble Real estate tech provider Yardi acquired Deskpass and Hubble, both apps that remote workers can use to book coworking spaces. Deskpass, based in Chicago, says it lists more than 7,900 coworking and shared office spaces in 260 cities. London-based Hubble says it lists thousands of spaces in the UK and beyond. Yardi already operates CoworkingCafe, a marketplace for coworking spaces with more than 21,000 locations. It also operates Yardi Kube, which provides back-office tech for coworking offices. Sabre Sells GetThere to Serko Sabre sold its business-travel booking tool, GetThere , to Serko for $12 million. Serko is a corporate travel management company based in New Zealand. Along with the purchase, Sabre and Serko began a long-term partnership to invest and grow the GetThere business. Sabre detailed that partnership in October. Serko said last week that it is investing $100 million over the next three years for tech that will power all of its products, including GetThere, Zeno, and Booking.com for Business. Uber-Backed Moove Acquires Kovi Moove , the Uber-backed company that provides financing to help rideshare drivers purchase cars, is expanding into Brazil and Latin America with the acquisition of Kovi. Brazil-based Kovi has car rental and rent-to-own services, as well as a car rental program for rideshare drivers. Moove says the deal increases its global fleet to 36,000 vehicles in 19 cities. It also increases annual recurring revenue to upwards of $275 million, the company said, up from $115 million that it reported in 2024. Moove plans to purchase at least 15,000 vehicles annually as part of its long-term strategy. The company says drivers have completed more than 50 million trips completed in financed vehicles through its Uber partnership. Juniper Group Adds Another Travel Tech Company Juniper Group has acquired InteRES , which provides distribution and retail tech for the airline industry. The InteRES owner, who founded the company in 1997, sold his shares along with minority owner TUI Deutschland. Juniper Group is an operating portfolio of Vela Software, one of the six divisions of Toronto-based Constellation Software. Juniper Group owns more than 30 companies, including around a dozen in travel. The company plans to buy as many as a dozen travel tech companies this year, said Jaime Sastre, CEO of Juniper Group, in an interview with Skift in January. MG Group Gets Private Equity Backing Private equity firm Creador acquired a controlling stake in MG Group , which connects over 8,000 global buyers with more than 350,000 accommodation suppliers. The move positions Indonesia-based MG Group for global expansion. Six Other Travel Tech Acquisitions Mize (Israel) acquired RightRez (U.S.). Mize provides revenue optimization software for hotels. RightRez primarily offers flight booking tech. The deal is part of Mize’s plans to expand Outside Interactive (Colorado), the media company focused on outdoor adventures, has acquired Inntopia (Vermont) from Northstar Travel Group. The Inntopia platform enables hotel clients to offer bookable experiences to guests. Plans to add its own network of travel partners to the Inntopia portfolio, expanding the type packages it can sell. Atlys (India), the visa processing app, is expanding into the UK with the acquisition of visa services company Artionis. Atyls is taking on the company’s 40 visa specialists, with plans to double headcount in the UK this year. Atlys raised $20 million in 2024. Veryon (San Francisco), which provides aircraft maintenance software to airlines, has purchased RCMBT (Canada), an AI-powered maintenance analytics tool. Veryon’s plan is that RCMBT’s tools will help airlines minimize unscheduled maintenance and boost aircraft availability. Tech holding company Addnode Group (Sweden) acquired Railit Tracker AB (Sweden), which makes software meant to help public transport railway companies operate more efficiently. Clients Arlanda Express and the Swedish Transport Administration. Tech holding company Creatd plans to acquire Flewber , an app for booking private jets, for $7.5 million. Exploring India’s power, influence, and evolution March 17-18, 2025 - DELHI