Serko
36°51′00″S 174°46′53″E / 36.850126°S 174.781436°E
 Saatchi & Saatchi Building in Parnell | |
| Company type | Public company |
|---|---|
| NZX: SKO ASX: SKO | |
| Founded | 23 May 2007 |
| Headquarters | Saatchi Building, Parnell, , New Zealand |
Key people |
|
| Revenue | $48m FY23 $63m-$70m FY24 NZD |
Number of employees | 380 |
| Website | serko |
Serko Limited, known as Serko, is a travel management and expense technology company headquartered in New Zealand.[1]
Serko was publicly listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange in June 2014 and on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2018 under the ticker code SKO.[2] In October 2019, Booking Holdings purchased 4.7% as part of a partnership deal.[3] In 2020 Serko won the New Zealand High-Tech Awards, winning company of the year.[4]
History
[edit]Serko was founded in 2007 by Darrin Grafton and Robert Shaw, based on a previous business idea. In 2012 Serko received a $2.3 million NZD grant from Callaghan Innovation,[5] the R&D investment arm of the New Zealand Government, and commenced an international expansion, opening a development office in Xi'an, China. Serko was subsequently listed on the New Zealand Stock Market in 2014. With the new capital raising, Serko purchased Incharge, an expense provider in 2014, and Arnold Travel Technology in 2015 from Expedia Group.[6] In 2018 Serko launched into the North America market and purchased InterplX in 2019.[7] In 2019, Booking Holdings purchased 4.7% of Serko through a capital raising of $17.5 million NZD, as part of its Booking for Business expansion plans[8]
In 2024, Serko announced that it had agreed to buy corporate travel booking platform, GetThere, from Sabre for USD $12M.[9]
COVID-19 challenges
[edit]Serko was one of the first NZX-listed companies to issue a COVID-19 pandemic related profit warning in February 2020, well before other key market players and other travel technology companies, causing a 13% drop in their share price immediately following the warning.[10] In the following months Serko announced its worst annual performance in company history with a net loss of $29.4m and revenue halving to $12.4m.[11] Due to the uncertainty, the company conducted a capital raising of $55 million on the market[12] which was oversubscribed. Following a government response to COVID-19 which created normal domestic conditions in New Zealand and the establishment of the Trans-Tasman bubble, Serko returned to pre-covid transaction levels in March 2021,[13] and issued guidance to the market in May 2021 that it expects to make complete recovery by March 2023.[14]
Partnerships
[edit]Serko's main partnerships are with the Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) and Booking Holdings. Serko provides FCTG with a unique corporate online booking tool marketed as SAVI as part of the arrangement. In terms of Booking.com, a revenue sharing agreement is in place whereby Serko provides the underlying technology for Booking for Business, and Booking Holdings owns 4.7% of Serko and provides travel technology expertise.[citation needed]
Today,[when?] Booking.com for business has over 500k companies registered across 180 countries and is supported in multiple languages.[citation needed]
Serko produces white label storefront technology that powers the travel industry, it also produced the world's first marketplace that allows the supplier to connect their content into the storefront with or without the need for legacy GBD (Global distribution System) PNR's. Serko owns multiple key market patents.
The founders of Serko have been referenced as the inventors of online corporate travel in May 1994 with their first product called CABS (Corporate Automated Booking System) the platform was used by Amadeus in the 1990's to prove prior art claims against previously filed patents.[15]
Serko's other main partnership is with Carlson Wagonlit Travel, enabling Serko to expand into the North American marketplace and enabling Carlson Wagonlit Travel to retain market share win the Australia and New Zealand markets.[16]
The company was also the first travel technology company to partner with Southwest Airlines and Qantas to provide their airfares on the newly developed NDC Exchange.[17]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "SKO Serko Limited Ordinary Shares – NZX, New Zealand's Exchange". www.nzx.com.
- ^ "Serko Lists on NZX Main Board – NZX, New Zealand's Exchange". www.nzx.com.
- ^ "US giant Booking.com buys into NZ's Serko". NZ Herald.
- ^ "Winners". NZ Hi-Tech Awards.
- ^ "SERKO RESEARCH GRANT – ASIA PACIFIC REGION AND AMERICA". Callaghan Innovation. 3 November 2016.
- ^ O'Neill, Rob. "Expedia's Wotif Group sells Arnold Travel Technology to Serko". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 4 May 2015.
- ^ Marketing, InterplX (19 December 2018). "Serko acquires InterplX as part of global growth strategy".
- ^ "Booking.com parent takes stake in Serko". Australian Financial Review. 23 October 2019.
- ^ Limone, Jerry (28 October 2024). "Serko to buy corporate travel platform GetThere from Sabre for $12 million". Travel Weekly. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ "Serko shares thumped after coronavirus warning". NZ Herald.
- ^ "Travel software firm Serko suffers sharp losses amid pandemic disruption". RNZ. 19 May 2021.
- ^ "Serko in trading halt as it seeks $55m capital raise". NBR. 1 October 2020.
- ^ "Travel specialist Serko says transactions nearing pre-Covid levels". NZ Herald.
- ^ "Serko expects 'full recovery' in NZ, Australia travel market in the year to March 2023". Stuff. 19 May 2021.
- ^ "Expense Manager Serko Accelerates Global Expansion With Booking.com Partnership". Skift. 20 November 2019.
- ^ "CWT-Serko Reseller Agreement Expands to U.S. & Canada & Adds RoomIt". www.businesstravelnews.com. 11 February 2019.
- ^ "Southwest Airlines selects Serko as NDC partner". www.businesstravelnewseurope.com. 16 August 2019.
