Travel Planners International Inks Deal with Tern

Travel Planners International (TPI) revealed Wednesday that it has signed a new partnership with Tern to bring the travel tech company’s CRM technology to TPI advisors.

The partnership includes TPI and Tern jointly investing in a “buy down” initiative to reduce the cost of onboarding and support services for TPI members. It also includes discounted access to some of Lucia by Tern’s offerings, a new offering that Tern announced earlier this month.

TPI said that the goal with the deal was to “elevate CRM capabilities for advisors,” and to match the offerings of its sister company, Vacation Planners, which already offers Tern to its franchisees. Currently, TPI has 5,600 advisors while Vacation Planners, which just started earlier this year, has 6 franchisees and growing. 

“Partnering with the right CRM is about giving our advisors the best possible tools to thrive in a rapidly evolving travel landscape. We have already elevated our CRM offerings for our sister brand, Vacation Planners, so this is the next phase in developing our synergistic brand offerings,” said Jenn Lee, president and CMO of TPI & Vacation Planners.

The news continues some pretty significant growth for Tern. Aside from that Lucia acquisition this month, the company also recently announced that it has raised $13 million in Series A funding to support its next stage of growth. The new investment — led by Viewpoint Ventures and Haystack VC — adds to a previously unannounced $4 million seed round from Upfront Ventures, bringing the total raised to $17 million.