HotelRunner raises $6.5 million to accelerate global aspirations

Hospitality and travel industry technology provider HotelRunner has raised $6.5 million in a Series A funding round. The capital is expected to support the company’s growth aspirations, particularly via launches in both the US and LATAM markets. Since 2012, the startup has taken on only $8.5 million in external funding.

HotelRunner’s $6.5 million Series A round was provided by existing investors 212, and new investors Wix Capital, Founders Factory, Ascension Ventures, DHM, alongside angel investors Gradient Solutions and Mobile Travel Technologies founder Gerry Samuels, Yemeksepeti founder Melih Odemis, Seedcamp Venture Partner Daniel King, and AquaFold founder Niels Gron.

There are no two ways around it - the pandemic hit the hospitality and travel industry like a tonne of bricks on a Sunday morning. More than a few hoteliers were sent scrambling when lockdowns shut down their bread and butter (and jam and smashed avocados) overnight. 

However, as the saying goes, when one door closes …

Clearly sensing the opportunity in the crisis, HotelRunner, a more than decade-old company now, and one that provides a technological underpinning of an industry, clearly took the time to reevaluate the status quo, was able to turn on a dime, and now with the world seemingly reopen (even China has opened the turnstiles again), is arguably in a better position that pre-pandemic.

Offering the hospitality industry a homogeneous sales, operations, and distribution management platform, AI-driven business intelligence solutions, and market network, HotelRunner has weathered the storm, quoting “thousands of clients” and operational in 193 countries around the globe.

Able to scale at a moment's notice, the HotelRunner platform services every type of would-be, or even be, Radisson with a full suite of digital operations tools, while at the same time offering access to a B2B network that helps those that host us do business together, culminating in, according to the company, more than 35 million transactions daily between properties, travel agencies, travelers, and payment gateways.

Since acquiring Turkish hospitality industry competitor HDN Global in 2014, and again Turkish hosptech firm Ratefor in 2020, the company now turns its eyes squarely across the Atlantic, citing office openings in both the US and LATAM markets.

“Since the day we founded HotelRunner, we draw our strength from our conquering technology and trailblazing persona, and work with the sole ambition of moving our partners and the industry forward, also preparing them for the future,” said HotelRunner co-founder Arden Agopyan. “This funding will provide us with the extra means to significantly further our efforts to realize our mission of offering a global networked marketplace where all travel industry players can participate fairly and trade seamlessly with each other.” 

Lead image: Dan Taylor