Serko keeps ploughing money into AI, US expansion and losses slowly reduce
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Dual-listed Serko has narrowed its losses and bumped up its revenue in its full year results announced this morning, and the company believes the figures show its strategy of leaning heavily into AI investment is paying off.
The dual-listed company, which has its headquarters in Auckland’s Parnell, provides cloud-based online travel booking and corporate expense management software.
The company partners with major travel management giants such as Flight Centre Corporate and American Express Global Business Travel to manage bookings for corporate clients. The Serko platform books them flights, hotels, and car rentals that can do things like comply with corporate travel policies and budgets.
Now, the aim is to build a platform that is even more intuitive, becoming something of a travel planner or executive assistant in the pocket, powered by AI, Serko chief executive and co-founder Darrin Grafton told The Post.
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“We take all of that knowledge that we've had over the years in the different markets that we've been in and put that into a true travel assistant that's agentic, so it's thinking for your behalf; it understands you, understands your preferences, it knows the seats you like to sit in, it knows the planes you like to fly,” Grafton said.
“It knows how to balance that with the policy or programs that your company may have as well. And it also knows that you might want to take on some leisure from time to time as well.”
The new Serko.ai platform, which will eventually underpin all Serko products, is already in beta trials (being tested with a small group of actual users) in the US.
“I think it's amazing that New Zealand's actually leading that sort of space… it’s something to really feel proud of, and that’s what excites me, that we are really pushing what is possible in this space, powering some of the biggest brands in the world today,” Grafton said.
Serko’s business model has been turbo charged by a partnership with travel behemoth Booking.com, where the Kiwi company provides the underlying software engine powering the platform’s dedicated offering for small and medium business travel across 180 countries.
Serko, which has a market cap of $175m, also acquired GetThere, another corporate booking tool, for US$12 million in the US last year.
And all this has concerned some analysts who look at the heavy outlay of cash to build the company’s AI-powered business, particularly in the US, and wonder when it will break even. This mirrors a more widespread concern about what some believe to be “over-the-top” investment in AI infrastructure and a concurrent mass loss of jobs.
A recent Anthropic AI study on the impact of AI in the workforce found travel sector call centre operators and booking agents to be already the second most exposed occupational category in the US economy to AI agents, after computer programmers.
Result
Today’s annual result from Serko showed a 34% increase in total income to $120.9 million in the year, and reduced losses, to a loss of $17.7m this year, from $22m last year.
For the chief executive, this shows things are going in the right direction, albeit the spending will have to continue a little longer.
“We see through to 2030 [the spending on growth will continue], but as we're doing that, we're scaling the revenue at the same time …our initial investment was four years, and we're trying to shorten that as quickly as possible to get to that [selling part] of it.”
Breakeven will come when the company decides it, because “we are in control of our operating model” and there will come a point where profit will not be reinvested for growth.
Things the company are not in control of include the geopolitical situation for travel. Today’s result lists one of the company’s risks as “Sudden and prolonged downturn in demand for business travel due to macroeconomic conditions, natural disasters, pandemics, extreme weather events, breakdown in critical infrastructure or geopolitical events.”
The Middle East conflict is impacting travel through the popular Middle Eastern hubs belonging to carriers from that regions. But Grafton said the company was not seeing much of an impact at present.
“Business travel has always been quite resilient,” he said, adding that face-to-face meetings would always be a must-do for many businesses.
“We haven't seen the impact at both in our home markets here and globally, so it's really interesting. We did see a small blip in the Middle East area …but we're finding that people just reroute through different areas to get to their destination.”
Serko shares have dropped almost 53% over the last 12 months, and slipped back 0.36% to $1.39 after today’s announcement.