Onfly provides companies with an end-to-end corporate travel and expense management software platform and will utilize the funds to scale sales and marketing efforts, build new products, and engage in opportunistic M&A activity
SÃO PAULO, June 7, 2023 — Onfly, a Brazilian travel technology company that provides an end-to-end corporate travel and expense management software platform, closed a $16 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital and Cloud9 Capital. By combining key industry partnerships with a custom-built travel search engine, the company supports all clients’ travel needs on a single platform – including booking flights and hotels to employee expense reimbursement and corporate cards. Onfly currently has 200 employees and plans to continue building technology to further facilitate and digitize corporate travel in Brazil and across Latin America.
Founded in September 2018 by Marcelo Linhares, Elvimar Soares and Elvis Soares, Onfly was born from the founders’ personal frustrations with booking and managing corporate travel. They worked together previously and experienced several key problems related to corporate travel – such as employee fraud, delays in reimbursements, and friction with traditional travel agencies that resulted in a poor manager and employee experience.
This painful journey led them to create Onfly’s technology-driven travel and expense management platform. Onfly initially focused on simply the booking process and workflow approvals within companies, but has expanded its product offering to automate the entire process of expense reporting for travel, including advances, receipt scanning, reimbursements, and comprehensive reports and analytics. Additionally, Onfly offers a prepaid corporate card to employees, eliminating the need for issuing advances and requesting reimbursements altogether. Today, the Company offers a complete travel and expense management platform that allows clients’ employees to book travel and accommodations in just a few minutes with the industry’s most competitive rates.
“When our clients use Onfly, they’re offered complete visibility with assurance that travel resources are being allocated in the best manner. Our product offers full compliance and traceability of all expenses and several back-office controls. For employees, we deliver the best experience, enabling them to make reservations with a quick and streamlined booking process. For financial managers, we provide real-time visibility of all these expenses, eliminating spreadsheets, endless email exchanges, and phone calls with travel agencies,” says Marcelo Linhares, co-founder and CEO of Onfly.
The company currently has almost 1,000 customers of various sizes, ranging from small businesses with 50 employees to enterprise clients with 10,000+ employees. While the company declines to quote specific booking volume and revenue figures, it grew by nearly 400% in 2022 while maintaining profitability, and continues to demonstrate strong growth in 2023.
“Left Lane is excited to support Onfly in building the largest corporate travel and expense management software business in Latin America. Brazil represents one of the top ten largest corporate travel markets globally, however this industry has been historically dominated by legacy travel agencies that don’t leverage technology solutions,” says Matthew Miller, Principal at Left Lane Capital. “Onfly has demonstrated tremendous growth post-COVID as corporate travel demand has surged, and the Company will have further resources to continue investing in additional products/features and hiring across all key departments.”
The New York-based venture capital and growth equity firm is now making its second investment in Brazil, following its investment in Rei do Pitaco – a Sao Paulo-based real-money gaming platform.
The funds from the round will be used to further scale the sales, marketing, and technology departments. Part of the investment will also be directed towards launching new products and exploring acquisitions. Both Left Lane and Cloud9 will join the company’s Board of Directors.
“We have been following Onfly’s journey since early 2022, and it’s been impressive to see how much the company has innovated in the sector, delivering an end-to-end product while growing significantly. The foundation is already set, and the funds will allow the company to accelerate and scale this incredible work by the Founders,” says Rafael Serson, Partner at Cloud9 Capital. “Onfly is following the steps of key global companies by transforming the legacy Brazilian travel industry, which has strong tailwinds towards digitization.”
About Left Lane Capital
Founded in 2019, Left Lane Capital is a New York-based global venture capital and growth equity firm investing in internet and technology companies with a consumer orientation. Left Lane’s mission is to partner with extraordinary entrepreneurs who create category-defining companies across growth sectors of the economy, including software, healthcare, e-commerce, consumer, fintech, edtech, and other industries. Select investments include GoStudent, M1 Finance, Wayflyer, Bilt, Masterworks, Blank Street, Talkiatry, Tovala, and more. For more information, please visit www.leftlanecap.com.
About Cloud9 Capital
Led by Felipe Affonso, Noah Stern and Rafael Serson, Cloud9 Capital is a Brazilian growth equity firm founded in mid-2021. Cloud9’s mission is to support Brazilian tech companies with proven product-market-fit and scalable business models in their growth stage. For more information, please visit www.cloud9capital.com.br.
SOURCE Onfly
