Tech

Itilite raises $29M to automate corporate spending workflows – TechCrunch


For much of the past two years, the pandemic has brought kibosh to corporate travel of almost any kind. This has dampened investor enthusiasm for the predictable cost and travel (T&E) startups whose expertise lies in creating software for travelers. calendar and other forms of spending. But as the appetite for live events and interactions returns to what it once was, T&E is becoming a category of interest again.

Case in point: Itilite, a Bengaluru, India-based company developing T&E software, today announced that it has raised $29 million in a Series C round co-led by Tiger Global and existing investor Dharana Capital led with participation from Matrix Partners and Tenacity Ventures. In an interview with TechCrunch, CEO Mayank Kukreja said that the proceeds will go into a “strong expansion”[ing] in North America through product innovation, sales and marketing, and partnership development. ”

“As [former] road warriors spend more than 200 nights a year traveling and as a consultant have worked with organizations worldwide to help them balance cost and employee experience , [we] Kukreja, who co-founded Itilite with Anish Khadiya in 2017, told this reporter via email. “The great disagreement between personal and business travel processes creates an interesting opportunity. Even as personal travel becomes increasingly seamless and ‘digital’, business travel remains fraught with costly manual processes, complex approval structures and the lack of regulatory approvals. effective cost control measures. Thus, Itilite was born”.

Prior to founding Itilite, Kukreja spent just over four years as an engagement director at McKinsey before accepting an offer at Myntra, an e-commerce fashion retailer based in Bangaluru, India. Khadiya also worked at McKinsey as director of engagement before joining Myntra as director of strategy and planning.

With Itilite, designed to integrate with existing enterprise systems, Kukreja and Khadiya sought to build a service that could automate T&E processes by providing travelers with options personalize according to their interests and past searches. For example, Itilite can automatically generate expense reports based on travel data and motivate employees to submit them. The product also encourages employees to make “cost-conscious” choices when they travel by exchanging small rewards.

Itilite

Itilite consumable tools. Image credits: Itilite

“AI and machine learning have always been at the core of our product… [it helps users] booking is more cost and time efficient,” said Kukreja. “Today, with most systems, companies have to choose between an easy-to-use system or a controlled system. Our product goal is to provide a combination of consumer-grade experience and enterprise-grade control. ”

Itilite also has built-in fraud prevention tools that leverage AI to detect submission errors. It’s a necessary feature, depending on which survey data you trust. T&E expense company Certification Find in a 2014 analysis that businesses lost $30,000 each because of fraudulent reports of expenses, such as misrepresented expenses, fictitious expenses, exaggerated expenses, and multiple chargebacks. time.

T&E Space – could be worth $17.4 billion by 2027, according to to Grand View Research – rife with competitors, including Concur, TripActions and Distribution. (Recent IDC estimates that, as of 2018, Concur held more than half of the overall T&E market.) But Kukreja claims that Itilite has more than 300 clients, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups in the US. and India. While declining to share revenue figures, he said that ride bookings on Itilite’s service are up 200% from pre-pandemic numbers while the company’s customer acquisition rate has tripled. .

Itilite

Itilite founders, Mayank Kukreja (left) and Anish Khadiya (right). Image credits: Itilite

“We are adding customers at a faster rate than ever before. This also signals that business travel has recovered strongly and will continue to increase in the coming months,” said Kukreja, adding that Itilite plans to double its staff to 300 this year. “For many of our customers, we are supporting their teams across all geographies to create a seamless T&E experience.”

To date, Itilite has raised $47 million in venture capital.



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