Travel technology company Amadeus has announced the acquisition of Catalan company Voxel, which specialises in electronic invoicing and B2B payment solutions for travel agencies, hotels and other industry players. This transaction has the dual objective of reinforcing the development of a simple payment experience in the travel industry and enhancing the offering of Amadeus' travel solution, Outpayce, for travel agents and hotels.

By incorporating Voxel's solutions, Amadeus will diversify the payment services it makes available to travel agents. It will also facilitate and automate electronic invoice management for tour operators, TMCs, hotel aggregators and hotels.

Reducing manual processes
At the same time, the purchase of Voxel will enhance Amadeus' service to corporate customers by further automating the business travel experience, from booking and payments to expense management. With the addition of both technologies, the travel industry will be better connected and the experience will become smoother and more agile by reducing manual processes.

Voxel was founded in 1998, and its headquarters are located in Pamplona. Its 200 employees will join Amadeus. It does in addition bring a customer base that includes over 50,000 hotels, more than 1,000 tour operators and travel companies and over 3,000 restaurants and franchises in more than 100 countries. In total, it handles over 100 million transactions per year.

Streamlined, integrated and even invisible payments
Amadeus President of Travel Decius Valmorbida values the complementary line of solutions that Voxel brings to enrich its end-to-end offering, “leveraging smart technology to benefit the industry and the travel ecosystem at large. Payments are present at every stage of the travel experience. For a better travel experience, it is crucial that we ensure seamless, integrated and even invisible payments.”

Voxel CEO Angel Garrido highlighted Amadeus' global reach, “with travel and technology experts working towards better, connected travel from door to door. These attributes, combined with Amadeus' deep roots in the travel industry, have created a unique opportunity for Voxel and Amadeus to grow faster and integrate innovative and automated technology, not only improving processes for travel agents, but also for travel service providers.”

David Doctor, CEO of Outpayce, Amadeus' payments business, explained that their goal so far has been “to develop an integrated payments ecosystem that travel companies can connect to, and to access the latest fintech innovations. The acquisition of Voxel allows us to do both.”

^{Photo: Amadeus}