Irish travel tech company CarTrawler has been acquired by US digital travel group Expedia.CarTrawler, founded by brothers Greg and Niall Turley in 2004 having grown it out of their family business, Argus Car Hire, has been majority owned by British private-equity group TowerBrook Capital since May 2020 after it invested €100 million in the Irish business which had been struggling to trade amid Covid lockdown restrictions on the travel trade globally.The company makes software that is used by airlines and travel agents to connect to car-hire companies, providing the carriers with ancillary revenue opportunities. It has offices in Paris, London, New York and Sydney.CarTrawler has a network of more than 2,200 car rental and “mobility” suppliers in 150 countries while its airline and other partners include EasyJet, Air France KLM, Uber, American Express and United Airlines. It also sells insurance products.Expedia is one of the world’s biggest digital travel companies. Its sites include Expedia, Trivago, Hotels.com and ebookers.The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but CarTrawler said it would advance its strategy to build the most complete business-to-business travel platform. It said it had “significantly expanded” its global footprint.“Together, the businesses will unlock new opportunities for supply partners to access incremental demand, for business-to-business partners to integrate richer and more competitive travel ancillary solutions and for travellers to benefit from greater choice and value,” the companies said in a joint statement.CarTrawler chief executive, Peter O’Donovan said the deal was “a testament to the strength of our technology, the drive of our people, our track record of innovation and our accelerating commercial momentum”. “This exciting combination allows us to advance our mission as part of travel’s best and most complete business-to-business engine, unlocking new opportunities for innovation and growth,” he added.CarTrawler paid a dividend of just under €9.1 million to its parent company in 2024 at a time when its revenue increased marginally but its profit declined by 40 per cent.Latest accounts for Etrawler Unlimited Company for the year to the end of September 2024 show the dividend was paid to its immediate parent, ET Holdco, which is based in the Isle of Man. This dividend was down from a figure of €46.7 million a year earlier.Revenue rose by 1.3 per cent to €172.3 million but its profit after tax declined to €6.6 million from just over €11 million a year earlier.Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose by 2.3 per cent to €23.3 million.Expedia Group chief commercial officer Alfonso Paredes described the deal as “another huge, exciting step towards our ambition of building the most complete business-to-business travel platform”. “Acquiring Tiqets helped us solve for activities at scale. Adding CarTrawler now extends that same strategy into car rentals, ground transport and Insurtech,” he said.“CarTrawler’s focus and differentiated expertise in these areas complements our strengths in business-to-business scale and technology, enabling us to massively amplify our joint value proposition to partners, suppliers and travellers.”Gordon Holmes, chief investment officer at TowerBrook, said the group was confident at the time that it would emerge from Covid-related industry dislocation as an “industry champion”.“The performance over the last six years, driven by innovation and commercial excellence, has exceeded all expectations,” he said. The transaction, which remains subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to be completed in the second half of 2026.Expedia Group generated $14.73 billion (€12.71 billion) in annual revenue last year, which was an increase of about 7.6 per cent on 2024.