CarTrawler

CarTrawler, B2B car rental and mobility platform for the travel industry

CarTrawler is a B2B technology company headquartered in Dublin (Ireland) that operates a global travel marketplace: the Connect Platform. Through it, it connects airlines, travel brands, car rental suppliers and mobility suppliers with end customers, enabling them to offer vehicle rental, airport transfer and ride-hailing services. The company presents itself as a provider of car rental, ground transport and insurtech solutions for the global travel industry, combining, according to its own description, human ingenuity and technological innovation.

The Connect Platform and its partner ecosystem

The core of the business is the Connect Platform, described as a proprietary, highly scalable technology platform with rapid deployment capabilities. The company states it has more than 70 airlines and more than 250 travel companies as partners, as well as a global network of car rental and mobility suppliers. The platform is organised into modules focused on different capabilities: content, technology, revenue, people, loyalty, experience, care and payments.

Among the functions the company attributes to its technology are personalised cross-selling by customer segment, revenue management and personalisation through real-time machine-learning pricing and sort models, supported by an in-house data science team. The company also mentions cross-functional trading squads working with partners to drive performance.

Offer for partners and suppliers

CarTrawler targets two main groups. On the one hand, airlines and travel brands, technology and other sectors, to which it offers to expand their service offering and ancillary revenue opportunities. On the other, car rental and mobility suppliers, which gain access to the platform's partner network to distribute their services. The company describes its proposition as the only purely B2B one in the market and notes that its supply offering covers car rental, private transfers and ride-hailing for different customer segments.

Koala: travel protection for travel businesses

Within the CarTrawler ecosystem operates Koala, a specialist travel protection capability that enables partners to offer flexible, customer-centric protection alongside car rental and mobility services.

Track record: from Dublin to acquisition by Expedia Group

The company was founded in 2004 in Dublin. Its timeline includes milestones such as its acquisition by ECI in 2011, BC Partners' investment in 2014, the acquisition of mobility supplier Cabforce in 2015, the launch of its SmartBlock cross-selling technology that same year, the creation of an employee share fund and a €10 million investment package in 2021, and the appointment of Peter O’Donovan as CEO in 2022.

Among the launches and partnerships the company details are those with Emirates (2011), KLM and Edelweiss (2015), easyJet, Alaska Airlines and eDreams Odigeo (2019), Uber Rent and Hopper (2020), United Airlines (2021), Air France-KLM, Wizz Air, Luxury Escapes, Volotea, Flair Airlines, Avelo Airlines and Norse (2023), Jet2.com, Jet2holidays and American Airlines (2024), and Ryanair, Qantas, Virgin Australia and LOT Polish Airlines (2025). In 2026, launches with Trainline, Etihad, The AA and Southwest Airlines were announced, along with the acquisition of CarTrawler by Expedia Group B2B, which integrates it into the group's B2B division. The company also mentions the acquisition of insurtech Koala in 2025 and various recognitions, such as the Skift IDEA award in the business results category (2025), the Analytics Employer of the Year award (2022) and the analytics innovation and customer experience awards (2021).

International presence

In addition to its corporate headquarters in Dublin, CarTrawler has offices in New York and London. The company opened its New York office in 2019.

Headquarters and locations

Corporate office (Dublin): Classon House, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14, Ireland

Location 2: 3 Waterhouse Square, 138 – 142 Holborn, London EC2N 2SW, United Kingdom