Business Travel Startup Engine Hits $2.1B Valuation After $140M Series C

Engine, formerly Hotel Engine, booked a $140 million Series C led by a fund advised by private equity firm Permira that values the Denver-based startup at $2.1 billion.

The new valuation represents a 62% jump from its previous $1.3 billion value after a $65 million Series B in late 2021.

That increase is no small feat considering many startups are still raising money in flat or even down rounds from their sky-high valuations during the record venture market of 2020 and 2021.

It also shows the continued bounce back of business travel — one of the sectors most greatly affected by the COVID pandemic and one that has taken time to eventually return.

Growing and rebranding

Engine’s platform connects business travelers to a network of more than 750,000 hotels, 300 airlines and 40 rental car companies. Those travel providers also use the company’s platform to provide special offers to business travelers, manage reservations and create marketing.

The company is profitable and is growing its revenue 70% year over year. The company will use the fresh capital to support product development, including the launch of flight and rental car bookings to its platform.

The company also announced it will rebrand to “Engine.”

“Hotel bookings will always be in our DNA, but we’re out to transform the entire travel experience,” said CEO Elia Wallen in release. “We want to become the engine of business travel. Our new name will reflect that, and with Permira’s latest investment, we’ll be better positioned than ever to turn our ambitions into reality.”

The new round is the largest raised this year by a travel business startup, surpassing the approximately $106 million Series D Spain-based TravelPerk closed in January, per Crunchbase data.

Founded in 2015, Engine has raised $221 million, per Crunchbase.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman