Kinnevik Results Presentation Deck
Intro
SOFTWARE
Net Asset Value
The leading solution for
businesses to book corporate
travel online
Fair Value SEK 1.9bn
Kinnevik Stake 15%
How does a travel management
company not just survive, but
thrive, in a global pandemic?
We spoke to Avi Meir, founder and CEO of
TravelPerk about how he steered TravelPerk
through the covid crisis
Avi, what was your first reaction when covid
hit the world in March of 2020?
In March 2020 we were growing 3x year-on-
year. Three weeks later we had a negative
revenue day. Negative. Revenue. We needed
KINNEVIK
Interim Report. Q2 2022
Portfolio Overview
Travel Perk
to return more money than what we had col-
lected that day. Overnight, we had to acknow-
ledge that our world had changed completely
- we went to war mode.
The Leadership Team and I met on a Sun-
day afternoon and simply deleted the docu-
ment with our yearly goals. We stood up by
the whiteboard and wrote down three new
priorities: 1) survive, 2) emerge strong, and
3) turn lemons into lemonade.
Tell us how you made sure the company
survived the crisis
We needed to make sure we had enough
cash to outlive the crisis. All replaceable or
luxury expenses were immediately cut to zero
- rent, fruits & coffee, etc. We needed to be
brutal and get rid of everything that we could
buy or rent again in the future.
The one thing that we didn't cut was pe-
ople. It took a lot of effort to build our ama-
zing team, and I wasn't going to let it all go
to waste. People are not interchangeable,
each of us is unique. So, we fought hard to
save every job we could and avoided layoffs.
We had 300 sales representatives and
travel agents who had no work to do as no
one was traveling in April 2020. We did a
very aggressive performance review across
the organization covering all roles, which
enabled us to cut costs while keeping the
best people - even in roles that had no work
to do at the time.
Sustainability
As a side effect is that my team now knows
that I did everything in my power to keep
Financial Statements
their jobs, and that our values are not mere
virtue - we stick to them even when things
get tough. Imagine how much stronger we
are as a team now because of this.
In addition to cutting costs by over 40
percent, we also raised a convertible note
from existing investors. I didn't negotiate the
terms too hard, we needed cash and I wasn't
going to be short-sighted and fight for paper
valuation at the expense of cash in the bank.
Two years on, we now know that TravelPerk
not only survived but emerged strong - how
did you do it?
We always knew that the meetings that mat-
ter happen in person, and that people will
go back to wanting to connect in real life.
So, we decided to not stop selling but kept
adding customers as fast as we could, even
though no one was traveling. We set up their
accounts, did demos, and crossed our fingers
that one day they would use the product.
I used to tell my team that we're like a real
estate company buying buildings to rent in
the future. We know that tenants will want
to live there, but right now we can't rent the
assets. Future revenue was our north star
metric (we called it Travel Budget Under
Management).
In addition to adding customers, we also
used the time to double down on our pro-
duct. We hired more people in product and
engineering and increased our product velo-
city. Quiet times have their advantages, and
we used it to build for the future.
Other
As a result of our resolve to emerge strong
from the crisis, we have tripled our margins,
kept building a great product, added more
customers than ever, and increased future
revenue.
Finally, how did you manage to turn lemons
into lemonade?
Crisis means opportunity. Once we had en-
sured we would survive and emerge strong,
we lifted our eyes from the immediate, and
looked for these strategic and rare opportuni-
ties that the crisis enabled for us. Firstly, crisis
means lower valuations and we acquired four
great companies at a discount during this
period. Secondly, traveling during Covid was
really complicated with all local rules and re-
gulations, so we built a Travel Restrictions API
and sold to third parties. Thirdly, as we saw
remote work and increasingly international
team as a trend that was likely to last beyond
the pandemic, we built an offsite planning
tool to enable people to meet in person a
few times per year.
So where is TravelPerk today?
I'm fortunate enough to have a great team
and fantastic investors that supported us
throughout the crisis. Today, our revenue is
10x compared to before the pandemic, our
margins are 3x, the team is stronger than ever,
and the product is in a category of its own.
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