About Serko
Hero-Video-Thumbnail
TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL & EXPENSE MANAGEMENT 

No more compromise

Corporate travel usually feels like hard work for someone.

The traveler - collecting a walletful of receipts and frustrated by the friction of their travel booking process and the restrictions of their corporate policy.

The administrator - chasing paper trails around the world. Or the travel manager - trying to balance conflicting needs of the individual and the corporation but pleasing no-one.

Serko exists to change this paradigm. Using intelligent technology, predictive workflows and a traveller-centric marketplace, weʼre transforming the world of business travel and expense.

Transforming business travel & expense management

Managing business travel and expenses is a hassle for most people, most of the time. But it doesn't have to be.

Our mission is to use intelligent technology to make the process of booking, managing and reconciling business travel and expenses, a better experience for everyone. 

“Until now, corporate travel and expense management has been a choice between control and compliance or freedom of choice and ease-of-use. Someone had to compromise. Not anymore." - Darrin Grafton, Serko CEO

Serko's history

We've been leading the way with innovative, integrated travel & expense solutions since 2007. Since then we've listed on the New Zealand and Australian Stock Exchanges (Ticker: SKO), built a global team of around 250 people, and developed a blue-chip customer base in more than 35 countries around the world.

Today, more than 6,000 corporate customers across Asia Pacific, North America, the UK and Europe rely on Serko to help them manage their corporate travel programs and make sense of their corporate expenses. By the numbers, more than 2 million people have access to Serko's technology and more than US4.5billion of travel spend is transacted on Serko’s platform every year through  4 million+ bookings*.

*2019 data

The management team

Darrin Grafton

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

Darrin has 25 years' experience in travel technology and is highly experienced in technology commercialisation. He previously held senior management positions with Gullivers Travel Group (listed on the Australian and New Zealand Stock Exchange 2004-2006) and Interactive Technologies.

Darrin was awarded the NZX Hi-Tech Entrepreneur Award and finalist for the NZ Hi-Tech Company Leader Award in 2007. In 2008 he was a finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and in 2014 was named one of "25 most influential executives in the business travel industry" by American-based Business Travel News (BTN).

Darrin is a member of the Institute of IT Professionals NZ, the Institute of Directors NZ and NZCDP.

Bob Shaw

Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder

Bob has 30 years' experience creating and commercialising technology for the travel industry. He has held a number of directorships and senior management positions in various high-profile ventures including Gullivers Travel Group (listed on the Australian and New Zealand Stock Exchange between 2004 and 2006) and Interactive Technologies.

Bob's strengths lie in his ability to translate opportunities into successful commercial ventures and build the relationships necessary to see them through to fruition. In 2008, Bob was a finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and is a member of the Institute of IT Professionals NZ, the Institute of Directors NZ and NZCDP.

Charlie Nowaczek

Chief Operating Officer

Charlie has over 25 years experience as an operations executive and management adviser, specialising in business transformation and operational excellence. Over the last decade he has been COO for a number of technology start-ups in the US and Canada. 

Susan Putt

Chief Financial Officer

Susan has over 30 years experience working in New Zealand and has also worked in Australia and Canada. She is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors. Susan has worked as CFO, Head of Strategy, and Director for a number of New Zealand high-growth companies.

Duanne O'Brien

Chief Technology Officer

Duanne is a technology leader with over 25 years experience, specialising in building global enterprise SaaS (software as a service) platforms. Duanne leads the largest of our global teams, designing, building and running Serko’s platforms and products.

John Challis

Head of Business Development

John has 18 years' experience in the corporate travel technology sector across operations, implementations and sales. John has been with Serko for 11 years and was until recently responsible for managing the Australasian sales team, however, as part of Serko's global expansion plans John is now responsible for growth in new markets, with a heavy focus on the Northern Hemisphere. 

Tony D'Astolfo

Senior VP, North America

Tony is a 35-year travel industry veteran, with rich expertise in business travel and technology and a passion for moving the industry forward. His career includes senior leadership positions at Deem, Phocuswright, GroundLink, Sabre / GetThere and United Airlines. 

Tony is a long-time member of GBTA and ACTE and a former member of the Board of Directors of both ACTE and WINiT for Women. 

Nick Whitehead

Chief Marketing Officer

Nick is a technology marketing leader with a 20 year track record of commercialising technology through the development of effective go-to-market strategies and leads Serko's global marketing and communications function. 

Murray Warner

Head of Australasia

Murray has 20 years experience working with cloud software technology building new sales and revenue operations. He has previously held several senior management positions with Concur Technologies, an SAP company, across Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America.

Philip Ball

Chief Information Security Officer

Philip has been a cornerstone of the Serko Technology story since 1999.  After graduating with a Bachelor of Information Systems he joined Serko as a Junior Developer and moved through the ranks, being appointed CTO in 2013.  Part of the CTO role included Security until Serko saw a need for a separate role of CISO.  When this role was created Philip was a natural appointment to this role as he had developed a passion for everything security in his time as CTO.

Philip has had a hand in most aspects of the code in all the product variations that Serko have had in the past.  Now with a new focus Philip is predominately focused on security within Serko; starting with a secure development approach, with secure / privacy by design.  Philip is involved in the security community within New Zealand, was a finalist for the title of New Zealand Software Developer of the year award in 2011 and was listed in New 

Joanne Phipps

Head of Internal Consulting

An integral member of the Serko product team for over 20 years, Jo has been responsible for the training, implementation and on-site support of Serko Online in its early days, through to her current role in leading the product team. With a focus on enhancing the definition and growth of Serko's Travel and Expense products in the marketplace, Jo oversees the development of the product’s roadmap, working closely with development, testing, marketing and sales teams within the business.

Prior to Serko, Jo held management roles within the Budget Travel retail travel chain for 10 years and as such carries a wealth of knowledge about the travel industry.

Fiona Rockel

Head of People Performance and Culture

Fiona has worked in organisation development and change, HR and talent management roles across a diverse range of industries for more than 20 years. Having spent her early career in consulting with KPMG, she then moved to the UK where she spent 5 years in professional services and charity sectors. Returning to New Zealand she’s led the people function in organisations in FMCG, technology and professional services sectors. She believes that whether you’re all about technology & travel, ice-cream or charity, high performing organisations are created by engaged and passionate employees with a clear view of where we’re all headed. Her job is to create that high performing organisation with our people.

The Serko back story

Serko is a story of technology innovation. Founders Darrin Grafton and Bob Shaw started the Serko journey with Interactive Technologies Limited in 1994, and we've gone from strength to strength ever since.

Start The Journey

1994

Interactive Technologies founded

This is where the origins of Serko began, when Bob Shaw and Darrin Grafton established ITL, a technology company designed to help travel agents solve a number of thorny mid-office and back office system challenges.

2000

Early version of Serko Online is released

As the internet began to change the way leisure travelers searched and booked travel, ITL changed direction in order to ride the wave and in 2000 Serko Online was born to bring online booking to business travel.

2007

Serko is born

Following the sale of ITL, the company Serko is founded and launched. That year CEO Darrin Grafton is awarded the PWC Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

2011

NFC expense management patented

A key part of Serko’s DNA is the development of ground-breaking innovations, and the first in a series of patents for the use of early stage technology to solve business travel and expense challenges.

2012

First China office opens

Recognizing the opportunity to capitalize on China’s talent pool of developers and software engineers, Serko opens it’s first development office in Xi’an.

2014

NZ Stock Exchange listing (Ticker: SKO)

Serko is floated on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, allowing retail and institutional investors to participate in the company’s growth prospects.

2014

Acquisition of expense provider Incharge

Travel accounts for nearly 70% of expense spending, so the ability to offer a tightly integrated travel and expense management solution becomes a key differentiator.

2015

Acquisition of Arnold Travel Technology

Serko acquired the assets of Arnold Travel Technology, a competing online booking tool (OBT), from Expedia® to extend it's dominance over the Australian market

2016

SME self-onboarding solution

Recognizing that online booking tools (OBT) have traditionally been the preserve of large corporate and government organizations, Serko launches a portal designed to make it cost-effective and simple for small- and mid-size organizations to access the benefits of a managed travel program.

2017

Corporate travel mobile app released

Recognizing the trend for consumerization of enterprise technology, Serko launches a mobile app for iPhone and Android, putting the power of a travel concierge in the hand of every corporate traveler.

2018

Zeno is launched

The most significant product development in Serko’s history leads to Zeno, a ground-breaking travel and expense platform powered by AI that brings personalized itineraries, chatbot bookings and intelligent travel management to the industry for the first time. 

2018

Expansion into North America

Industry veteran Tony d’Astolfo joins Serko as Senior Vice President, North America and begins to build a team and establish operations and partnerships in region.

2018

Australian Stock Exchange listing (Ticker: SKO)

An increasing demand from international investors sees Serko undertake a compliance listing on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

2019

Acquisition of InterplX, USA headquarters established

Serko acquires InterplX, a Minnesota-based expense management company that brings a team of highly capable technology specialists to strengthen it's presence in the North American market. Serko North America Headquarters established and strategically positioned in close proximity to key partners in the Midwest.

2019

Booking.com Partnership

Serko and Booking Holdings extend their partnership to launch a new version of Booking.com for Business powered by Zeno

2020

Booking.com for Business powered by Zeno goes live

The new Zeno powered Booking.com for Business solution goes live, introducing the vision of the connected trip to business travellers globally with flight and rail content added to Booking.com's extensive accomodation inventory for a unified itinerary.

2021

Thriving through the pandemic

Despite a global slowdown in business travel, with NZ$90 million of cash reserves, zero debt and a rapidly expanding global customer base, Serko is investing to grow it's technology and development teams to accelerate towards growth opportunities. 

Plays nicely with your other systems

Zeno can integrate with most corporate card providers and can ingest or share data with your HR, ERP, Accounting or Finance Management System to reduce manual workflows and improve data integrity.
Investor

Investors

Serko is listed on the New Zealand and Australian Stock Exchange Main Boards (Ticker:SKO). Visit the Serko Investor Centre for the latest market announcements, investor reports, stock price information and to sign up for investor alerts.

VISIT THE INVESTOR CENTRE
Careers 1

Careers

Serko is one of the most exciting high-tech businesses to work for in the travel and expense technology industry. Find your fit by learning about the culture in our different offices around the world and check out the latest opportunities to join our global team in our Careers Centre.

VISIT THE CAREERS PAGE
Solutions 1

Solutions

Zeno Travel and Zeno Expense are cloud-based enterprise grade solutions that help corporates manage their travel and expense programs. They exist as standalone solutions that can integrate with your existing tools or bring them together for an integrated end-to-end solution. 

SOLUTIONS