Hotelmize, developer of AI-based price prediction and profit-optimization technologies for the hotel booking industry, said Wednesday it is raising its B round investment largely in the Asia Pacific to expand service offerings, accelerate company growth, and capture the longterm promise of the region’s tourism industry.
The Israel-based company also announced it’s establishing its APAC headquarters in Hong Kong as a gateway to APAC and China.
This financing round is led by
the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and Israeli-based Brilliance Ventures.
Named one of the most promising TravelTech startups for 2020 by Phocuswright, Hotelmize has developed proprietary technology that allows travel companies to increase their bottom-line profit by over 30% through streamlining and automating their procurement processes.
Inspired by algorithmic trading in global capital markets, Hotelmize’s AI-based technology monitors the fluctuations in prices of hotel rooms from the placing of a reservation through to the vacation date and trades the rooms the same way that algorithms trade stock in the capital markets. Room prices change dynamically, similar to options or warrants, which also come with expiry dates.
Hotelmize’s algorithms utilize investment strategies, similar to financial markets’ ”short” and “long” positions, buying and selling hotel rooms in a completely automated manner to generate additional profits that were not previously available for travel or hotel companies.
To date, Hotelmize has handled over US$2 billion of reservations and has created over US$100 million worth of transactions for its customers including some of the leaders of the global tourism industry.
The attention the company attracted over the past year did not go unnoticed by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund which decided to invest in the current round and adds to the US$5 million raised by Hotelmize previously from Investible VC from Australia and its anchor investor, Talma Tourism. Hotelmize will use the capital raised in its B round to expand its operations in APAC and mainland China, data-driven service offerings and to enhance its core solutions, focusing on company AI prediction capabilities.
Founded in 2016 by Dor Krubiner, Omry Litvak and Guy Levitan, Hotelmize employs over 20 people in its Tel Aviv headquarters and has four more sales offices in London, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and Mallorca.
Additional investors in the round included Israel-based VC fund Brilliance Ventures, which invests in growth-stage companies with market-potential in Asia.
“The tourism industry is one of the most-competitive industries worldwide. Unlike others, travel industry players are offering highly similar products, which makes it exceptionally difficult to differentiate from their competition.,” said
Dor Krubiner, CEO of Hotelmize. “The adoption of advanced technologies as we offer at Hotelmize is a sure way for travel and tourism organizations to keep their edge. In the coming years, we will see travel industry players transform themselves from ‘commercial enterprises’ into ‘technology enterprises.’ The demand for advanced data-driven intelligent solutions is already growing at a rapid pace.”
“The international hotel business is a huge market, and we always look for cutting-edge technology to improve industry efficiency. Hotelmize has proven its value to clients and the team has demonstrated strong implementation capability,” said
Cindy Chow, executive director of the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund. “As we come out from the current difficult situation under the effect of COVID-19, we believe that Hotelmize can contribute to the recovery of the hotel industry with its unique value proposition. With our Fund's investment and support, we are confident that Hotelmize can prosper in their expansion in the APAC region using Hong Kong as the headquarters."
About Hotelmize
Hotelmize is a travel technology start-up that delivers AI based profit optimization solutions for hotel resellers. The company was founded in 2016 by Dor Krubiner, Guy Levitan, Omry Litvak. The company employs over 20 people at its headquarters in Tel Aviv and has four regional sales offices in London, Bangkok, Buenos Aires and Mallorca. The company has a global client based and it is serving some of the biggest brands in the hotel booking industry.
About Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund
The Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (“AEF”) is a non-profit initiative launched by Alibaba Group in 2015. To vitalize the development of innovation and technology, AEF’s mission is to help Hong Kong entrepreneurs and young people realize their dreams and visions for a Hong Kong that is vibrant and engaged regionally and globally. As part of its investment program, AEF provides Hong Kong-based entrepreneurs with investment capital and strategic guidance to help them grow their businesses and penetrate global markets, by utilizing Alibaba's vast ecosystem. For more information, please go to the website:
https://ent-fund.org.
About Brilliance Ventures’
BV is a Israeli-based venture capital fund founded in 2018 focusing on investing in mid-later stage tech companies with high growth potential in Asia pacific followed by collaboration with portfolio companies to achieve ultimate success in all forms of cross-borders investment banking activities.
