Flight Centre Invests in Jay Walker's Biz Travel Company Upside
Skift Take
It sure looks like global corporate travel giants are starting to take the small- to medium-size business travel market seriously. For some startups that didn't find traction in the marketplace, this means another shot at success.
While many companies in the last few years have launched with the goal of disrupting the business travel marketplace, most have experienced serious growing pains along the way.
Upside, which launched in beta in 2016 with big plans to reinvent how business travelers book their trips, has received an investment from Flight Centre Travel Group alongside a commercial agreement to cooperate on distribution matters.
After acquiring a 25 percent stake in Upside, Flight Centre has become the largest individual shareholder of the company. The price Flight Centre paid for the stake was not disclosed.
The deal follows Flight Centre's recent investment in 30SecondsToFly and its acquisition of mobile chat provider Sam. It is also Flight Centre's second corporate travel acquisition in less than a year, after the company purchased California-based Casto Travel late last year. The value of the investment was not disclosed.
Flight Centre operates a variety of business travel brands including Corporate Traveller, FCM Travel Solutions, and Executive Travel. Key to the deal is Upside's intellectual prope
