About Serko
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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.
At Serko we believe in the power of being face-to-face, and our purpose is to bring people together.

We have a vision for a connected, frictionless travel experience. To deliver that, we’re building the world’s business travel marketplace - connecting business travellers everywhere with the content, information and services they need at every stage of the journey.

“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

Our leadership 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.

Shane Sampson

Chief Financial Officer

Shane joined Serko with over 30 years’ experience in finance, commercial and leadership roles, most recently as the CFO of NZX and ASX listed company PushPay.

Through his career he has held senior management roles, building and leading large teams at Vector, Spark and Pulse Energy. Shane has a BCA and LLB (Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington and is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

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. 

Sarah Miller

General Counsel

Sarah has over 20 years' experience leading in-house legal functions for dual-listed entities, consulting to a range of companies on capital markets and M&A transactions, providing governance advice, and working for major law firms in New Zealand the UK. She has been Serko’s Company Secretary since 2014.

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.

Rachael Satherley

Chief People Officer

Rachael has more than 15 years in HR leadership roles across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, with much of her career at the Expedia Group. She brings a strong commercial focus and a deep passion for unlocking individual, team and organization potential. 

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.

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. 

Joanne Phipps

Head of Product

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 Zeno 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.

 

Jonathan Starkings

Head of SME Partnerships

Jonathan is an experienced travel technology executive who previously held senior roles at Groupon, Expedia Group (Orbitz) and Langham Hotels. He leads our global SME partnerships including Booking.com for Business. 

Jason Hawthorne

Head of Content & Commercial

Jason is an experienced commercial leader who has held senior management and consultant roles at Expedia, Google and Spark.  He helps to set commercial strategy for our distribution and supply channels and align others to drive commercial success.

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