TripActions files to prepare for IPO at $12B valuation

TripActions is said to have filed confidentially to go public in the second quarter of next year at a $12 billion valuation.

Citing an unnamed source, Business Insider broke the news on Wednesday that the company had filed confidential paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. Bloomberg’s Katie Roof in early August had reported that the move was coming.

When asked about the supposed plans, a company spokesperson told journalist via email: “We have long considered a potential initial public offering as one option to fund the business, but we do not comment on our specific plans or timing.”

Last October, TripActions raised $275 million in a Series F “growth” funding round at a $7.25 billion valuation. 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, TripActions was primarily known for merging many aspects of corporate trip booking — flights, hotels and rental cars — with expense tracking.

But the Palo Alto-based company was among the startups that was hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the global crisis resulted in its revenue dropping to $0, according to CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen. In March 2020, the company made headlines for laying off nearly 300 employees in the face of a slowdown in business related to the pandemic.

It was at that point that TripActions made the decision to accelerate the timeline for its fintech expense product, TripActions Liquid, which had launched only a month before the pandemic. As the pandemic led to increased digitization across the board, employees were suddenly making spend decisions from outside the office and more merchants were accepting digital payments.

By leaning full force into the spend management space, TripActions has been competing with the likes of Brex, Ramp and Airbase, among others.

Greenoaks led the company’s most recent financing, which also included “strong participation” from Elad Gil, Base partners and “all key existing financial investors.” Other backers in the company include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Zeev Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Group 11.

In April, TripActions shared with me some stats around its recent growth. At that time, the company told me that transaction volume processed via TripActions Liquid more than doubled (by 107%) from January 2022 through March 2022, up 1,231% year-over-year.