CarTrawler, the Irish-founded global B2B car rental technology platform for the travel industry, has acquired Paris-based travel Insurtech firm Koala, widening its range of market-leading travel ancillary products.
The news comes on the back of CarTrawler detailing another strong year (12 months to end of September 2024) of booking volumes and financial results. CarTrawler generated revenues of €172m, with EBITDA of €23.305m up 2%. A 14% year-on-year increase in car booking volumes was driven by continued organic growth and a number of new commercial partnerships.
Significant investment into the business continued, with €8m directed towards R&D to drive long-term value by further enhancing the company’s proprietary ‘Connect Platform’, and expanding its AI and data science capabilities.
CarTrawler said earnings are already up 20%, year-on-year for its current financial year.
Peter O’Donovan, Chief Executive of CarTrawler, commented: “The demand for B2B travel ancillary solutions continues to increase, with our travel partners asking us to add these solutions to our offering. The acquisition of Koala is a further step toward fulfilling our ambition of becoming the leading multi-product ancillary platform for the global travel industry. Koala’s product innovation and customer-centric approach makes them a natural fit. Together, we’ll unlock more value for travel partners and travellers alike.”
With a global network of over 2,200 car rental and mobility suppliers across 50,000 locations in 150+ countries, CarTrawler powers ancillary revenue for more than 250 travel brands and 70 airline partners.
New partner additions this year included American Airlines, Qantas, Jet2, Virgin Australia, and Finnair alongside established partnerships including EasyJet, eDreams ODIGEO, Uber, United Airlines and American Express, strengthening CarTrawler’s leadership in powering ancillary revenue for the world’s top travel brands.
