Why we invest in Troop?

Why we invest in Troop?

TROOP offers corporations a scientific and algorithmic, data-driven approach to design and optimize the overall meetings and events strategy more effectively, saving time, money and significantly reducing the carbon footprint.

1. Timing and the new key times in investment.

We are in a time of change where society is beginning to organize itself differently, benefiting from the advantages of digitalization. The world we are in is already different. The contribution of new companies, Startups, generates momentum and activity; this is the case of Troop.

In a new economic environment, working from home is consolidating and the worker values its advantages: greater personal freedom, autonomy and responsibility. New technologies allow work to be done wherever the individual and his or her communication devices and work are.

Troop’s solutions help teams to have sporadic meetings, significantly reduce travel costs and their carbon footprint, minimize risks and organize business travel from a single platform that integrates all data sources.

Everything you need to optimize travel management in one place.

The strategy of bringing teams together occasionally in comfortable, safe, cost-effective and comfortable environments is the starting point for Troop’s solutions. The platform optimizes the trip, performs risk assessment and manages the purchase of trips with the appropriate suppliers, all of this is done with the management of the data that the platform obtains from the users.

2. The environment

Corporate travel is a traditional industry with very little innovation to date, but one that offers incredible opportunities for the future, Undoubtedly amplified by the current situation and digitalization.

Prior to COVID-19, travel for meetings and events accounted for 54% of corporate travel which peaked at $1.3T.

The U.S. alone generated more than one-third of global spending, topping the rankings for business travel spending.

The global business travel market is estimated to decline by -54% in 2020 and decline by -4.5% in 2021 and thereafter recover to reach $829.5B by 2027, post COVI-19 CAGR of 3% from 2020 to 2027. Now, corporate travel spending will be lower and specialized. Team meetings will be critical over making business travel.

3. The project, the team and the location

Troop has been a decentralized project since its inception, with 19 team members working remotely, spread across the globe: Villanueva del Pardillo in Madrid, Bilbao, Gran Canaria, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, London, Seattle, Bali and Bangalore.

Dennis Vilovic, CEO of the company, who has lived in 9 countries on three continents, considers himself a citizen of the world. His entire working life has been based on analyzing how companies operate in order to make them more efficient.

This experience allowed him to discover that decision making when it came to organizing trips was done manually, based on subjective decisions. Thus arose the idea of optimizing decision making in external corporate travel and meetings, integrating and exploiting all available data and making them more efficient. In 2017 he founded Troop with his South African partner, Leonard Cremer.

4. An endorsement of the rightness of the proposal.

Troop’s numerous recognitions and awards it has won since its inception:

- Plug and Play Spring Summit 2020, Silicon Valley, USA.

— Phocuswright Conference 2019, Ft. Lauderdale, USA.

— BCD Battle of the Pitches 2019 Atlanta, USA.

— ACTE Tech Studio 2018, Paris, France.

— Business Travel Show 2018, London, UK.

5. The three Pillars and the philosophy of cooperation.

Beyond what has been mentioned so far Conexo’s investment in Troop is underpinned by three fundamental strengths.

1st Cooperation. The company’s value proposition integrates ideas, companies and solutions, which the powerful management team has been able to aggregate. Some examples:

- Risk Line: which provides information on health restrictions and requirements in each country.

— Passport Index: global information on visas.

— Skyscanner: flight fare comparison and booking.

— TaxBack.com: obtaining up-to-date tax information.

In addition, it is integrating services such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Spotnana and strategic alliances with Amadeus, Amex GBT or Center are the best guarantees of success.

2º Technology. An exclusive code built under the philosophy of cooperation, developed internally, and hosted in the cloud. Tailored to meet the needs of corporate travel planning and with the integration of Troop’s algorithms that connect in real time with all the data sources.

3º Commercial team for direct sales to multinationals and medium-sized companies, with B2B and B2B2C channels. They already have international clients with recurring contracts and high-value management commissions.

5. Troop: backed by major VC players

Troop’s greatest guarantee for the future is that its proposal has the support and trust of important VC players, having closed a Series A financing round of 6.92 million euros with funds such as Conexo Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Epic Ventures, All Iron, Plug and Play and other investors.

Dennis, CEO of Troop and Steve Sing, Managing Partner of Madrona Ventures were key in the transaction’s investment design, which ensured the future success of Troop.

After this round they are generating value in Spain by hiring a team of developers, they are actively looking for 11 developers.

According to StartUp Radar Madrid, October closed with €417m invested in startups in the Madrid region. The investment in Troop ranks 10th and is the only one generated in a town in Madrid, demonstrating that it is possible to generate work, innovation and entrepreneurship from outside the big cities.

6. Conexo’s technology

Conexo can identify winning investment proposals.

We have attracted and channeled a powerful flow of investment opportunities, counting more than 5,600 selected proposals, mainly from Spain and Portugal, with more than 85% of them originating in our Sofia platform.

In the case of Troop, it all started with the alert of the neutral management tool “Sofia” created by our partner, Isaac de la Peña. The good performance of Troop in the last three months, showed that it was among the top 10 Startups in Spain, after a dazzling comeback from position 2300.

The Sofia Platform allows us to automate the process of search, classification and monitoring of investment opportunities. Along with a unique CRM, it provides us with the agility to manage a flow of operations in a hybrid way, technology/equipment, with alerts that allow us to efficiently manage multiple opportunities. In addition, through its algorithms, it is capable of managing more than 35,000 units of information per month in multiple formats, valuing them and determining a ranking of behavior and evolution of companies in social networks, etc.

Conclusion

Our investment in Troop is determined by the fact that it is an innovative value proposition in an established sector, led by a global, powerful and disruptive team. In a recovering market after the pandemic and with prospects for change (digitalization).

In addition, Troop is aligned with new ESG dimensions such as sustainability and safety. This new approach to planning generates business value by using data through the application of AI to define the most efficient meetings and events strategy.

The clarity of the team’s objectives, the alliances it has forged for the development process, and the excellent references received from important players in the world of travel and large corporations have also contributed greatly,

IT IS A SOURCE OF PRIDE AND SATISFACTION FOR CONEXO TO CONTRIBUTE TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.