What Lola's Big Deal Means for Business Travel


A photo of Kayak co-founder Paul English sitting on a chair on stage speaking at a conference.

Skift Take

It will be interesting to see if Lola's fortunes change as its partnership with American Express Global Business Travel ramps up. We're quickly finding out how big a market there is for the variety of apps catering to business travelers from small- to medium-sized companies.
Big news this week for keen watchers of the corporate travel sector as Paul English's Lola has signed a partnership with American Express Global Business Travel to bring the service to more users. Lola's deal with American Express Global Business Travel is the logical conclusion following the startup's bumpy road since its launch in 2016. Now the small company has the backing of the largest player in corporate travel and access to all the juicy travel content of its big benefactor. It's not a coincidence that the Lola team is now talking about selling billions in travel a week after TripActions announced investors are valuing their platform as a unicorn. For all the talk about disruptive technology and elegant solutions, it's really all about the money. Forget millions, we're talking billions here, people. So ... has corporate travel suddenly become a sexy sector? The outside world is catching on to the reality that corporate travel is big business. The giants of the sector are cagey about how pr