Travel and spend management platform Engine has acquired travel management company Options Travel, with plans to launch an AI booking tool for TMCs, the company announced.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but an Engine spokesperson said the acquisition has been completed. Engine is retaining the Mount Prospect, Ill.-based Options' brand identity, with the TMC continuing to operate independently and its current leadership team intact.
Engine already has been working with Options for nine months in exploring solutions for TMC agents in booking and management, the company said, and those plans are accelerating now following the acquisition.
Together, they are developing an "AI-native OBT" capable of managing bookings, payments, reporting, customer management and duty of care for TMCs, the companies said.
"TMCs are the relationship experts at the centre of the industry," Engine founder and CEO Elia Wallen said in a statement. "The technology behind them hasn't kept up. Working with Options Travel showed us exactly where it falls short. TMCs deserve modern technology behind them, and that's what we're here to bring."
Originally launched as Hotel Engine, a subsidiary to corporate housing company Travelers Haven to help guests with hotel bookings, Engine has grown into a platform offering booking for flights, hotels, rental cars and meetings as well as a spend management and corporate card product. It reports more than 33,000 businesses among its customers.
Options Travel general manager Brett Buynack in a statement said that joining Engine "lets us help build what our industry has been waiting for: real technology, for every TMC that's been underserved by legacy software."