The Barcelona Amenitiz has just obtained 26.97 million euros at the close of its last series A roundled by Eight Roads along with Chalfen Ventures and previous investors Point9, Otium and Backed VC.
This round, which comes a few months after the announcement of its acquisition for 6.5 million euros last November, will serve to expand into new markets. For now, Amenitiz has not revealed its valuation after the new round of investment.
Amenitiz, the “shopify for hotels” that has more than 4,000 clients in 37 countries
Amenitiz was born in 2018 by the hand of its founders Alexandre and Emmanuelle Guinefolleau and Frédéric Cadet, who were looking to create an all-in-one solution that would manage to centralize the tools that any hotelier could need, that is, a “Shopify for hotels”.
According to de Amenitiz, «It all started in the Swiss Alps more than a decade ago when Alex, the General Manager, and his family bought a small hotel and before opening it they wanted to modernize the internal operations», with which he realized the deficiencies and difficulties to achieve it.
Headquartered in Barcelona, Amenitiz focuses on offering its software as a service (SaaS) to its more than 4,000 clients in 37 countries. In addition to allowing you to manage daily operations, such as guest management, internal communication and billing, its platform includes a website builder and a channel manager, a complete menu to help hoteliers and guests during their stay, that supports third-party platforms where the hotel can be advertised, such as Booking, and Expedia, among others.
It is also capable of connect clients with various third-party software tools to cover your additional hotel management needs. With its Amenitiz solution, it allows hotels to boost their reservations directly, reducing their dependence on travel agents.
Despite having been launched just during the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has managed to rapidly scale its service, and in Europe alone there are more than half a million independent hotels, B&Bs and rural hotels, so the potential of the market is huge, and very little exploited. Its all-in-one platform promises a simple and easy solution for managing vacation properties and attracting guests by creating “exceptional experiences.”
The round will serve to accelerate its expansion to more countries in Europe
Amenitiz plans to use the funds raised to expand to more European markets, while launching more products on its platform. The startup also plans to further increase its workforce with a plan to grow from 150 people to around 350 by the end of this year.
CEO of Amenitiz stated that “When we approached our initial round with Point-Nine, we did so with very specific goals in mind. We wanted to start our internationalization with the opening of Spain and Italy, launch AmenitizPay to simplify the way our hotels manage their payments, and start building strong leadership, while expanding the team, which has grown from 30 to 150 employees to 2021».
Amenitiz already has some clients outside the region, however Europe will continue to be the main market for the company, as there are around 700,000 hotels in the region, of which 80% are independent properties with 50 rooms or less, the segment that Amenitiz targets.
«The plan is to focus on Europe for now, as it is one of the world’s largest tourism markets, but to expand rapidly to new continents in the coming years, most likely to USA and Latin Americaas the objective of the next expansion».
Right now the goal will be to expand Amenitiz to Ireland, Portugal, Germany and “potentially” Greece, which together with their existing markets, represent 90% of the European tourism market.
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