Aug 2, 2022

Talma Shlomo buys travel-tech co Arbitrip Arbitrip founders Credit: Arbitrip Teddy Sagi is selling his 51% stake in Arbitrip to Talma Shlomo over the next two years at a company valuation of $40 million. Israeli travel solutions company Talma Shlomo has acquired a 51% stake in business hotel booking platform Arbitrip from Teddy Sagi Group and other investors. Under the terms of the deal, Talma Shlomo will gradually increase its stake in the company from shareholders to 75%. Teddy Sagi invested $4 million in the company for a 50% stake in 2018. Talma Shlomo will immediately receive 25% of Sagi's shares and about 26% from other investors. In the first stage Talma Shlomo will hold a 51% stake. In the second stage Talma Shlomo will receive the rest of Sagi's shares. At the end of the process, Arbitrip's valuation is expected to reach $40 million. Arbitrip has developed a platform for booking hotel rooms for business trips using algorithms that save companies time, effort, and money. The company’s platform rapidly locates appropriate hotel rooms at the best value prices as well as according to other needs such as the hotel’s location, and the travel destination, such as conferences. The platform can save organizations a significant part of business travel expenses by offering special wholesale prices and central enterprise management capabilities on one interface that provides a friendly user experience. At the same time, the platform monitors the systems of many suppliers and provides tracking of expenses, sets a travel policy, and manages payments and invoices to enterprise standards. The controlling owners of Talma Shlomo are Erez Shmol, Shlomo Group, the Naftali family (Big Shopping Centers and More Investment House. Talma Shlomo has a dominant position in the business tourism sector and plans integrating Arbitrip into the business trips it books for its customers. Arbitrip's founders are Benny Yonovich (CEO) and Orel Jossef (CTO), graduates of the IDF Intelligence Corps, who met during their military service. Arbitrip has raised $4.5 million since it was founded in 2015, with most of the capital raised from Teddy Sagi. Arbitrip has 15 employees and provides services to 850 business customers worldwide. After the deal is completed Arbitrip will continue to operate as an independent brand. Shmol said that the negotiations with Sagi began when he invested in the startup in 2018. "Over the years, we understood that this was a win-win situation for both sides." Talma Shlomo invests in travel-tech and has holdings in flight booking company Alice and other companies and in April 2022, completed the acquisition of the British company Norad Travel Group, which specializes in business tourism. The company is currently holding advanced negotiations to acquire a company in the US. RELATED ARTICLES