CAPZA is acquiring a reference minority stake in Travelsoft, a publisher of software platforms for the travel industry. CAPZA is investing through its Flex Equity Mid-Market II fund, which is completing its fourth investment since May 2022.
Founded in 2000 and headed by Christian Sabbagh, Travelsoft develops “Software as a Service” platforms for tourism. Historically operating in France, the Group has recently expanded into Europe through external growth with the support of its former financial partners, and now brings together three software platforms:
- Orchestra, the French leader, enables professionals to produce, administer, distribute and manage a complete leisure offer across all distribution channels: holidays (packages), hotel nights, plane tickets, dynamic packages, à la carte;
- Traffics, publisher of the German platform Cosmonaut, was the driving force behind the industry association for the Open Tourist Data Standard (OTDS);
- Travel Compositor, a platform based in Mallorca, has rapidly established itself in the Southern European markets thanks to the holistic approach of its booking engines, particularly the one known as “multi-destination”, and is expanding in Latin America.
Travelsoft automates bookings for more than €5 billion annually via more than 300 tour operators and 600 connectivity providers in more than 40 countries, mainly in Europe and Latin America. Travelsoft has more than 200 employees who are experts in travel technology for tourism.
With CAPZA on board, Travelsoft, which sees itself as the natural consolidator of its sector on a global scale, will continue to consolidate the leisure Travel Tech industry through its active external growth strategy. Acquisition projects that have geographical or functional complementarities are already under consideration.
CAPZA will also support the Group in taking practical steps towards achieving its sustainable development goals. This will involve promoting responsible and sustainable tourism, reducing the Group’s carbon footprint in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and reinforcing its CSR strategy.
“In CAPZA, we have found a partner of choice that shares our values and will back us in our strategy of consolidating the leisure Travel Tech industry. CAPZA teams have an international network and genuine expertise in external growth operations, enabling us to consider strategic acquisitions.” – Christian Sabbagh, Founder & CEO of Travelsoft.
“As Europe’s leading provider of software platforms for travel professionals, Travelsoft’s ambition is to support the digitalisation of the industry through innovative technological solutions. We were attracted byTravelsoft’s recurring business model, the long-standing partnership it has established with its customers, its reputation for quality in its market and the long-term trends in the sector. We are proud to support Christian Sabbagh, the founders of the Group’s platforms and their teams in consolidating the Travel Tech market.” – Guillaume Basquin, Partner, CAPZA Flex Equity Mid-Market.
“These 4 years of partnership with Christian Sabbagh and the entire Travelsoft team have been particularly rich in emotion and success. From the group’s extraordinary resilience during the Covid crisis to the acceleration of its international expansion with the structuring acquisitions of Traffics (Germany) and Travel Compositor (Spain), the Travelsoft team has impressed us with its determination, high standards and humour. We are therefore delighted to have supported the ambition of its CEO to become a European leader in Travel Tech. We wish Christian and CAPZA all the best for this new chapter in Travelsoft’s development, in the service of a renewed ambition for growth” says Stéphane Bergez, Managing Partner of Andera Acto, which joined the company in 2019 through a sponsorless transaction that led to a significant increase of Travelsoft management’s stake.
CAPZA enters Travelsoft’s capital as a reference minority shareholder, alongside Christian Sabbagh and the founders of Traffics and Travel Compositor, who retain a significant part of their capital at the time of the operation with more than 85% of the shares. Following this transaction, Christian Sabbagh maintains over 70% ownership.
CAPZA is investing through its Flex Equity Mid-Market II fund, which is making its fourth investment since May 2022. CAPZA Flex Equity Mid-Market aims to support medium-sized European companies as they grow and transform to meet sustainable development challenges.
Link to the CAPZA press release: here