New Swedish commitment to the Spanish corporate travel unicorn Travelperk. The Nordic ETF Kinnevik has once again injected another 17 million euros into the start-up during the second quarter of the year in a transaction that allows it to increase its shareholding position and establish itself as one of the most relevant names. The valuation of the Barcelona-based platform that it has set after the operation is the same as the extension of the round that it signed a while ago and that consolidated it as a unicorn.
Kinnevik’s movements are relevant. It is a significant action by two of the Spanish unicorns. And by being listed, this almost centenary ‘family office’ offers a more transparent vision of what happens in these companies and, above all, the valuations set. The Swedes entered Travelperk in 2018. Until now, they had invested just over 62 million euros in the different rounds of financing that had allowed them to control 15% of the voting power and have a seat on the board -. Now, as reflected in its semi-annual report presented to analysts, it increases disbursements in a strategy of increasing positions in “winning” companies.
Specifically, it has invested 203 million Swedish crowns, which is just over 17 million euros at the current exchange rate. It does not make it clear what the origin of the transaction is. But from the words of the CEO, Georgi Ganev, before the analysts, it can be deduced that it has been a secondary sale since they insist that the companies in which they have raised their bets, among which is Travelperk itself, have gasoline in the form of Sufficient capital without the urgent need to raise more. What is clear is that it rises to 16%.
One of the key points that has been looked at with a magnifying glass in recent quarters is that of valuation. Given this new macroeconomic scenario and after a strong adjustment of companies in the sector on the stock market, those ‘prices’ set for unlisted companies suffer some downward pressure. In the case of Travelperk, Kinnevik says it is benefiting from the “continued recovery” in corporate travel spending with a “favorable” comparison to early 2022, when they are still affected by the global coronavirus pandemic.
“Travelperk grows revenue at a significantly higher rate than its listed benchmark rivals,” he explains. According to the Stockholm-based investment manager, it broke the $100 million annualized revenue barrier by 2022. Its valuation remains largely unchanged at €1.2 billion. Its multiples in relation to revenue “fall 10 compared to its peers, which increased by 20%.”
This investment in the Spanish company or in others such as Instabee, a Swedish last-mile logistics company, corresponds to the family office’s strategy of focusing its efforts on “winning” companies. “Our main priority in 2023 is to increase the impact of our high-conviction businesses,” they point out. There are others that they have dropped in their portfolio, such as the British digital health company Babylon, which has gone public with a sale to a fund and in which dreams have not wanted to participate.
the other unicorns
The other great Spanish participation of Kinnevik is Jobandtalent. And in this case, the valuation has remained stable, as has the shareholding position of this investor. During this time, the fund has varied the comparables with those that set the company’s valuation. The two most obvious are Fiverr or Upwork, listed companies in the employment sector. To this we must add two markets such as Airbnb or Uber. According to his calculations, they all saw an average increase in their multiples of around 10 or 15 percent. “Our underlying valuation change is muted by senior liquidations that cause unchanged value,” they explain. Today it is slightly above 2 billion.
In addition to these two unicorns, there are many others with that valuation. In 2022 three were added to that list: Factorial, Fever and Recover. The first, developer of human resources management software mainly for SMEs, required a very high valuation despite the fact that it was activated in the summer, when the multiples had suffered. The second did so after the entry of Goldman. In addition, there are others that are somewhat more veteran such as Idealista, Devo or Cabify. The latter closed an injection of capital from the public fund Next Tech of the ICO and from Francisco Riberas (Orilla Asset Management), whose ‘price’ was not made public.
