TUI Needs to Grow, So It Invests in a Travel Tech Company

The investment arm of European tour operator TUI Group has taken a 15.4 percent stake in German travel technology company peakwork.

Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

The terms of the deal have not been revealed but it is expected that other investors will also come onboard in the near future as the business continues to grow.

Founded in 2009, peakwork develops distribution systems used by airlines, tour operators, and online travel agencies.

Peakwork takes a decentralized approach to data through the use of caching, which means that searches are often quicker and require fewer parameters, the company states.

Clients include Trivago, Kayak, Lufthansa, and Emirates.

Ralf Usbeck, peakwork’s chairman of the board, said: “We are receiving many inquiries from all over the world for investments in peakwork and have therefore decided to drive our further growth ahead with our strong strategic partners.

“We want to grow further and develop our technology platform into a global market standard for the tourism industry. We are delighted to have won TUI as our first anchor investor, and are now planning to attract additional investors.”

Frank Rosenberger, member of the Group Executive Committee and TUI’s Group Director Strategy, said: “Digitalisation is a key building block for accelerated, future growth at TUI. The acquisition of the stake in peakwork marks our entry into an innovative IT technology and a highly scalable business, aimed at further accelerating the pace of TUI’s growth.”