Correction: Ed Adams was not the founder of Direct Travel. Herb Edelberg founded the travel agency in 1973 and sold it to VTS Travel Enterprises in 1999. Direct Travel was acquired by a private equity firm in 2011, when Adams was named CEO of the agency.
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Direct Travel (No. 12 on Travel Weekly’s 2023 Power List) has been acquired by venture capitalist Steve Singh and a group of investors.
Terms of the acquisition were not released.
Singh, who founded Concur, will serve as the executive chairman of the agency.
CEO Ed Adams plans to retire.
Assuming the CEO role is Christal Bemont, formerly CEO of software company Talend. Before that, Bemont was SAP Concur’s chief revenue officer; she worked for SAP Concur for more than 15 years.
In addition to Singh, other investors behind the transaction include Durable Capital Partners, Madrona Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners and Blackstone Credit and Insurance.
"We will invest to meet our customers' current needs, grow our customer base in each of the markets we serve, methodically expand the number of markets we serve and the breadth of products we deliver to our clients," Singh said in a release.
Bemont said Direct will continue to invest in its proprietary technology, specifically around user experience and client services, and make that technology available as a service to other agencies.