Okarito, a young start-up that recently raised €2.1 million, aims to simplify the management of business travel in companies. The fully digital platform is dedicated to small teams, SMEs and SMIs wishing to better manage their employees’ travel. As mentioned by the company, the start-up is based on 3 axis: booking, modification and cancellation in complete autonomy, automatic payments and centralization of invoices, and a reactive and efficient customer service Zoom on this 100% digital solution.
An API to dematerialize transport tickets
Founded in 2018 by Brice Huet and Remi Duvoux, the project Okarito was born from the realization that business travel is very poorly managed. After interviewing more than 300 professionals, the two co-founders noticed that companies have two business travel management systems:
- On one hand, employees book their trips themselves on public websites (without BtoB platforms) and pay for them. The booking system on tourism websites has many disadvantages. It becomes very complicated to manage for the finance team, which loses time managing expense reports. In addition, they have no visibility or control over expenses and accounting.
- On the other hand, some companies use traditional travel agencies. They have not yet taken the digitalization step, often with limited offers and many fees added.
This is the genesis of Okarito, a free, no-commitment and entirely online platform. In January 2021, the company already had more than 500 companies under its wing, including Payfit, Kaufman & Broad, So Bio and Welcome to the Jungle.
A well thought-out solution
Far from traditional travel agencies, Okarito stands out thanks to its algorithm, which it developed internally, allowing it to calculate in real time the best price for each trip. Okarito provides business travelers with one of the world’s largest inventories of air, rail, hotel and car rentals. Employees are therefore completely autonomous to book, cancel and modify their business trips.
Optimized management
With a single travel management platform, companies can regain control of their travel budgets and implement a travel policy. Employees no longer have to advance expenses and get lost in invoice retrieval. All expenses are automatically paid, and accountants receive a single invoice at the end of the month.
The platform’s simple and modern interface allows employees to book trips for their colleagues, setting up approval channels if needed.
User experience at the center of priorities
Okarito achieves its aim at simplifying the life of its customers by providing a 24/7 customer service with an average response time of 4 minutes.
A growing company
First of all, the new NDC (New Distribution Capability) standard, which we detailed in our previous focus, is a real opportunity for the company. Indeed, it is not dependent on GDS remuneration. Its main sources of revenue come from the invoicing ofa fixed fee per active traveler, but also its suppliers and the contracts it negotiates with them.
In addition, the health and economic crisis has been a real opportunity for the company: “We have never had as many new prospects as since the containment,” says Remi Duvoux. The reason? Certainly because companies, more than ever, want to have control over the mobility of their employees. For the moment, the company already added some features:
- Adding the rental car
- Team development (technical, customer service, marketing and sales)
- Creation of partners (business contributors and prescribers)
