M&A operations continue in Business Travel, confirming the rapid recovery of the sector: following the takeover of Comtravo by Tripactions and of Click Travel by Travelperk, it is the turn of CDS Groupe, the French business hotel marketplace for seize the activity Travel of Rydoo, formerly Sodexo Travel, owned since September 2021 by the Marlin Equity fund.
The acquisition of Rydoo Travel by CDS Groupe is perfectly in line with our strategy: Acceleration of the company’s growth by strengthening its French leadership and technological consolidation. The complementarity in terms of positioning and customer portfolio will allow the new group to weigh 500 million euros in potential business volume, and to make it the de facto European leader in hotel reservation solutions in the field of business travel. We are excited to welcome the entire Rydoo Travel team. The group will now have 150 employees, including around 60 developers. Their in-depth knowledge of the IT services sector are all assets that will accelerate the growth of CDS Groupe’s offering. The Travel department of CDS Groupe will be led by Pierre Mesnage. We will capitalize by investing in all the solutions developed by Rydoo Travel, both the Self Booking Tool and the Hotel Booking Tool, in order to enable strategic partner agencies to be able to offer innovative solutions in the face of new international competition. We will thus be the only independent French and agnostic player with the ability to provide all the essential tools to current TMCs to serve their Corporate and Public Sector customers.
says Ziad Minkara, co-founder and CEO of CDS Groupe.
Sébastien Marchon, CEO of Rydoo, explains: Since its creation in 2017, the growth of Rydoo Travel has been very rapid. The covid has obviously slowed down our development but since September (2021), the recovery has been intense. Thanks to the many accounts gained over the past 2 years, our weekly turnover is now significantly higher than that of the pre-covid period (+92% last week). Despite this success (which validates our strategy centered on the user experience), we have decided to withdraw from Rydoo Travel and sold this activity to CDS. This operation responds to a double desire: That of accelerating our development on the Expense business line, which is already experiencing very strong growth but whose potential is even greater. We therefore want to devote 100% of our investments and energy to it. Then, that of allowing Rydoo Travel to achieve a “ critical size faster than just organic growth in an industry where volume is a “ game changer “. The merger with CDS thus gives birth to a European leader in hotel reservation solutions. We are delighted.
Founded in 2001, CDS Groupe has gradually established itself as a leader in the business hotel market. The start of 2022 has seen strong growth compared to pre-crisis volumes, confirming good commercial momentum as well as a strong recovery in the sector.
This acquisition project is accelerating the deployment of this strategy aimed at strengthening its leadership on the French market and contributing to its international deployment.
I am delighted to join the CDS Groupe teams. My desire is to continue to strengthen commercial relations with partners and in particular with the strategic agencies Havas Voyages, FCM, VoyagExpert as well as our historical clients such as CNRS, ENGIE and Deloitte.
says Pierre Mesnage, VP Sales & Operation of Rydoo Travel.
La business unit « Expense management renamed Rydoo remains in the fold of its majority shareholder, Marlin Equity.
The two actors pure player will focus on their respective areas of expertise and will continue to serve customers in common on the Travel & Expense part thanks to a strategic and commercial partnership.
Created in 2001 by its current CEO, Ziad Minkara, CDS Groupe is an HBT (Hotel Booking Tool) publisher of a platform dedicated to booking overnight stays for a clientele made up of corporates and travel agencies specializing in business travel. business. The company offers its customers an integrated solution allowing the reservation of hotels, with access to more than one and a half million accommodations throughout the world, and also offering payment, invoicing and reporting solutions. personalized. Intended to control hotel expenses by company while respecting the accommodation policy, the CDS solution helps to simplify the management of all flows related to hotel reservations.
