Recruit, the leading Japanese Internet and Media Group, acquires Munich-based travel-tech platform TrustYou to help accelerate its global growth ambition.

The Background More than 95 percent of online booking decisions are influenced by guest feedback platforms. Hotels, airlines and hospitality providers today are actively participating in this vast eco system of hotel reviews, surveys, social comments, and direct messages through SMS, email, Facebook Messenger and more. The aim is to receive actionable insights about their customers, leverage their feedback and positively influence future travel experiences.

The Partners TrustYou is the world’s largest guest feedback platform and currently operating from five headquarters around the globe: Germany, Romania, the United States, Singapore and Japan. TrustYou collects and analyzes approximately 100 million reviews every year for hundreds of thousands of hotels across the globe. TrustYou was founded in 2008 by Benjamin Jost and Jakob Riegger. Recruit Holdings was founded 1960 in Tokyo and focusses on providing value via information for various sectors such as Human Resources, Travel, Beauty and Lifestyle.

The Deal Recruit Holdings, the second largest internet group in Japan has successfully acquired TrustYou. For Recruit this marks the first travel tech and data transaction worldwide. Recruit Holdings will use TrustYou to build a new travel tech division globally. IEG – Investment Banking Group has acted as an exclusive financial advisor to TrustYou.

The Perspective Expanding the world’s largest guest feedback platfom on a global scale. „TrustYou’s remarkable growth from a small start up to a globally operating company is very impressive to us and we see a high potential for further growth and expansion. We are very committed to providing TrustYou with the necessary resources it needs to spearhead our big ambitions in the hospitality and travel market,” says Yoshihiro Kitamura, Head of Media and Solution Strategic Business at Recruit Holdings. Benjamin Jost, CEO at TrustYou comments: „With Recruit, we found a partner that is eager to support us with its financial resources and knowledge which will give us the necessary boost to accelerate future growth, be it organically or via further acquisitions.“