Concur Continues to Drive Innovation in Travel Industry Through New Concur Perfect Trip Fund Investments

BELLEVUE, Wash., July 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Concur (NASDAQ: CNQR), a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, today announced new investments by the Concur Perfect Trip™ Fund, the Company's initiative to allocate $150 million in capital to invest in and nurture emerging companies in the T&E Cloud.  Through this initiative, Concur is driving its vision of The Perfect Trip throughout the travel supply chain by creating a travel ecosystem that dynamically responds to the needs of business travelers, the companies that they work for and the suppliers that serve them.

"Concur is committed to driving the innovation agenda for our industry, and we recognize that a critical component of that agenda is providing compelling, emerging companies with the funding they need to deliver world-class solutions," said John Torrey, Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy of Concur. "By leveraging our balance sheet to foster innovation and nurture game-changing technologies that can be leveraged by the entire business travel ecosystem, we can efficiently extend our vision of The Perfect Trip to companies, suppliers and travelers as well as the developers, TMCs and other vendors who serve them.  Smart companies like StayNTouch, Trover and Yapta share Concur's spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship that will help us build out the services, functionality and global infrastructure available via the Concur T&E Cloud."

As part of this strategy, Concur recently completed new investments in StayNTouch, a developer of next-generation cloud-based solutions for hotels, and Trover, a mobile app and website that allows its community of travelers to share and explore discoveries in a highly visual way, and closed a new round of investment in Yapta, a leading provider of Intelligent Price Tracking™ for the travel industry.  StayNTouch and Trover join a growing list of innovative companies in which Concur has invested, including Evature, developer of an Expert Virtual Agent (EVA) which provides natural-language search capabilities for online travel, buuteeq, the leading cloud digital marketing system for hotels, Room 77, the industry's most advanced hotel search site, Cleartrip, India's leading online travel portal, Nor1, provider of upsell technologies to the hotel industry, and TaxiMagic, the leader in mobile consumer solutions for the ground transportation industry.

• StayNTouch – StayNTouch is pioneering new technology systems for the hospitality sector.  By creating a single cloud-based solution designed and optimized for tablets and smartphones, StayNTouch is aimed at rethinking the entire interaction between hotels and their guests in a way that will dramatically simplify all business processes for the hotel staff.  The company's first product is the StayNTouch Mobile App Platform allowing any hotel or group to extend white-labeled, hotel-branded apps to their guests' smartphones. Providing solutions that brilliantly connect guests to hotels, StayNTouch provides guests with the ability to check-in/out, order hotel services, communicate to hotel staff and more via their smartphone from anywhere anytime. The result is a more nimble and effective hotel staff and dramatically increased guest engagement.
• Trover – Since its launch in 2011, Trover has grown steadily as a community of travel, culture and photography enthusiasts via its website and mobile apps.  Trover's defining feature is its location-based discovery mosaic, which allows users to visually browse through an ever-growing collection of images created and posted by the community from more than 175 countries.  Trover members connect with one another through favorite places and shared interests, and exchange feedback, tips, and inspirations for new adventures.
• Yapta – Yapta is the developer of FareIQ, a patent-pending Intelligent Price Tracking™ technology that provides in-depth, 24x7 analysis and insights into corporate airfares, spotlighting opportunities to re-book tickets at lower prices, saving corporations crucial T&E dollars on a daily basis.  The solution integrates seamlessly with agents' workflow by dynamically monitoring pricing on individual passenger name records (PNRs) that are placed on a queue by the corporation or its travel management company ("TMC").  Upon recognizing a savings opportunity, FareIQ immediately issues a series of messages through multiple channels that enables those savings to be acted upon by an agent or a travel manager.  To date, FareIQ customers have saved a combined total of more than $1 million in airfare.

About Concur

Concur is a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions. Through Concur's open platform, the entire travel and expense ecosystem of customers, suppliers, and developers can access and extend Concur's T&E cloud. Concur's systems adapt to individual employee preferences and scale to meet the needs of companies from small to large. Learn more at www.concur.com or the Concur blog.

SOURCE Concur