Campbell Dallas advises Traveltek on securing £5.3m funding

Traveltek provides travel retailers, agents and wholesalers with the technology to sell an extensive range of hotels, flights, cruises and ancillary travel services in one seamless transaction.

The company has grown from a start-up in 2002 to employing nearly 100 staff and turning over £4.3 million and now boasts a rapidly expanding client base of household travel trade names including Hay’s Travel, Trailfinders, Co-operative Travel, the Flight Centre, Emirates and Barrhead Travel.

The company processes many millions of lines of data every day, and its systems underpin the day-to-day booking operations of a growing number of travel trade businesses across the world.

The investment will help expand the international office network from four to 12 offices and increase staff numbers from 100 to c. 200 during the next three years.

Significant investment will also be made in the development of the next generation of bookings software technology, systems and processes.

The new offices to be opened will include Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Dubai, joining Traveltek’s existing offices in Miami, Sydney and Hyderabad in India, which is a development centre.

Commenting on the investment and the strategy for growth, Traveltek Group Managing Director Kenny Picken said: “We are delighted to have secured the backing of YFM Equity Partners, which has an excellent understanding of this market and the growth potential of Traveltek.

The business is already in a strong position as the booking systems supplier of choice for many of the major travel trade businesses. We can now leverage that position and develop Traveltek into a major global technology business and invest in the latest technology, new infrastructure, business systems, business development and new talent.”

“We had excellent advice from Campbell Dallas Corporate Finance, our advisors in the deal and huge support from our lawyers Bellwether Green where both firms worked extremely hard in the process.”

Chris Horne, managing partner at Campbell Dallas, Chartered Accountants and corporate finance adviser to Traveltek said: “Traveltek is a great Scottish success story, and has the potential, with this investment, to become a major international player in the travel bookings technology market. We are delighted to have helped advise the business on its fund-raising, and to have worked with YFM on this deal.”