Travel Companies Push for Smoother Payments: Startup Roundup

07.06.2024 - 17:47 / skift.com / Justin Dawes

Travel payments is the theme for this week’s startup funding roundup. 

Three of the startups featured this week are focused on simplifying various types of payments for the travel industry.

The most notable is Nium, which makes it easier for travel companies to exchange money between currencies. The travel industry historically has been behind in making the payments experience as smooth as possible. But there’s been a focus in recent years on catching up.

Amadeus has heard from travelers that easy payments are a top expectation for the industry in the next 10 years. 

Five travel tech startups announced over $88 million in fundraises over the last two weeks.

Nium, a business-to-business fintech platform that handles cross-border payments, has raised $50 million in a series E funding. 

The round values the company at $1.4 billion, Nium said. The company has now raised $338 million, according to Crunchbase. 

The latest round was led by an unnamed “sovereign wealth fund” in Southeast Asia, with support from Bond, NewView Capital, and Tribe Capital.

Businesses can use the Nium platform to more easily send and receive money between countries and currencies. For the travel industry — like in the case of a payment from a travel agency to an airline, for example — it means lower fees and quicker payouts. Nium also works with expense management platforms to improve the cross-border reimbursement process. 

San Francisco-based Nium holds regulatory licenses and authorizations for more than 40 countries, including recent approvals in Japan and New Zealand. 

The company said its revenue grew 50% in 2023 from the prior year. 

The funding will go toward global network expansion, product innovation, hiring, and acquiring other companies.

Nium has made several notable hires this year, including former Bank of America exec Alexandra Johnson as chief payments officer, former PayPal exec Rissy Ruddy as chief human resources officer, and former Revolut exec Anton Pasiechnikov as vice president of Finance

Torpago, a corporate expense management platform, has raised $10 million in series B funding.

Priority Tech Ventures and EJF Ventures co-led the round, with support from BankTech Ventures and others.

San Francisco-based Torpago issues virtual and plastic corporate credit cards to business clients and offers a software platform for managing them. The platform includes capabilities for implementing guardrails and getting real-time spend alerts. The user app allows non-card expenses and reimbursements, and more.

Torpago is focusing on expanding its white-label product for regional and community banks, which allows them to offer branded corporate credit cards and expense management services to business clients. 

The company