Following its investment from the Bedford Business EIS Fund last year, corporate travel platform Tripism has now successfully secured funding from the Coast to Capital Growth Equity Fund, as part of a new funding round. Since its last round, which also included several angel investors,

Tripism has made significant progress with product development and expanded its relationship with Microsoft global travel. Tripism enables employees to use the travel experiences and know-how of colleagues to inform their own business travel decisions and to discover the benefits offered by corporate travel suppliers. Following the successful pilot and development phase with around 600 Microsoft users, the Tripism platform will now be rolled out to all Microsoft staff and will replace some of the company’s former travel tools.

Tripism founder and CEO, Adam Kerr, comments: “We are delighted with the progress of our work with Microsoft: Tripism offers user generated content for 97 cities across 33 countries, giving information about many aspects of corporate travel from flights, transfers and hotels through to restaurants, parks and running routes. This relationship has provided a great opportunity to develop and refine our offering and we are now looking forward to engaging further corporate clients.”

Tripism is in discussions with a number of large corporations who are looking for a clear understanding of the quality of service they are getting from their travel providers and a significantly better tool for their travellers. The latest £100,000 investment from Coast to Capital Growth Equity Fund is part of a further funding round that includes support from existing investors, and will see the company establish a base in Croydon to support the company’s marketing activity.

Avent Bezuidenhoudt, Senior Fund Manager at The FSE Group which manages both the Bedford Business EIS Fund and the Coast to Capital Growth Equity Fund, remarks: “the Tripism team is making great progress with this innovative travel app and is positioning the company well for a larger funding round later this year. We are delighted to continue working with them to realise their growth ambitions.”

The Coast to Capital Growth Equity Fund is part of the Coast to Capital Funding Escalator, a £5million initiative funded by Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership. The escalator, which also includes an expansion loan scheme, provides eligible companies with loans and equity funding between £50,000 and £200,000 for activities that will deliver high-growth and employment opportunities.