Regardless of clouds of uncertainty looming over the economic system and geopolitics, folks nonetheless wish to journey. To satisfy that demand, Mews, an Amsterdam-founded ‘unicorn’ constructing an SaaS platform for lodge administration, has raised a recent $75 million.
The funding is coming at a crossroad within the journey trade. On one hand are optimistic alerts. Analysts at Oxford Economics forecast that the trade will develop by 12% this yr, understanding to 1.75 billion “arrivals.”
And finances for journey equates to cash for journey startups. TravelPerk in January raised $200 million at a $2.7 billion valuation; Hostaway raised $365 million in December 2024; and Tourlane in Germany raised $26 million from Sequoia in November 2024. Prosus additionally scooped up Latin American journey participant Despegar for $1.7 billion.
But it surely’s not all rosy. It’s unclear how tariffs and different financial manoeuvres will influence folks’s journey budgets, to not point out the uncertainty over geopolitics. It’s additionally notable that Expedia has been shedding employees — might or not it’s a one-off transfer to enhance effectivity, or is it a bellwether of extra to return?
Mews additionally has dozens of rivals, which embrace incumbents like Oracle in addition to different startups like Softbank-backed Cloudbeds.
For now, issues seem like buzzing alongside for Mews.
Tiger International, a brand new backer, led this newest spherical, with participation from earlier traders Kinnevik, Battery Ventures and Progress Fairness at Goldman Sachs Options. (Battery led Mews’ $33 million Collection B, whereas Kinnevik and Goldman Sachs led the startup’s $185 million Collection C in 2022; Kinnevik additionally led its 2024 Collection D of $110 million.)
This newest spherical is opportunistic, CEO Matt Welle advised DailyTech in an interview. Particularly, it got here after Tiger approached Mews in search of to work collectively extra. Mews is just not disclosing its present valuation, and Welle as a substitute referred to as it a generic progress spherical, including that the startup plans to boost a a lot bigger spherical in a yr or two.
For some context: precisely a yr in the past, when Amsterdam-founded Mews raised its Collection D, it was valued at $1.2 billion.
Mews has been rising. At the moment, some 6,300 resorts use its platform, up from 5,000 a yr in the past, and it stated that in 2024 it processed $10 billion price of funds, double from a yr earlier than. In 2024, its income crossed $200 million because it added extra clients to the platform. It’s additionally increasing the companies on that platform, which can be constructing extra income per buyer. Some are natural and a few by M&A, comparable to its latest acquisition of Atomize to assist its customers with income administration. Pitchbook notes that Mews additionally raised $100 million in debt in September final yr to fund acquisitions.
Whereas a big a part of Mews’ enterprise is in Europe (it says it now has 20% market penetration within the DACH area, for instance), a whole lot of the expansion has come from a giant push throughout the pond.
Nowadays, founder (and co-CEO) Richard Valtr spends most of his time within the U.S., the place the corporate has been focusing so much — it doubled revenues in North America within the final yr.
When Valtr based the corporate in 2012, he did so understanding most of the ache factors of working a lodge enterprise. He had been an unbiased lodge proprietor himself, and he realized that there was a primary alternative to leverage the web, and the rise of software-as-a-service, to construct one thing new.
There are a variety of level options within the hospitality market, however Mews takes a “Toast” strategy to the trade, constructing its product with the idea of being end-to-end. It affords software program for managing lodge availability and reserving on-line, straight and thru third-party platforms; instruments for managing lodge personnel and amenities; cost and accounting instruments; occasion administration software program; loyalty and visitor expertise apps, and extra.
Maybe predictably, Welle stated that Mews has lately been doubling down on AI. It has an in-house crew engaged on totally different initiatives — not solely customer-facing agentic instruments, but in addition algorithms to enhance how Mews works. One instance, he stated, is a brand new buyer profile choice that takes in all of an people’ actions and preferences as logged at a lodge chain to create “Tweet-sized” summaries that concierges and receptionists can use to enhance customer support.
“Mews is redefining what it means to ship distinctive visitor experiences within the hospitality sector and past,” Sara Eadie, who led the funding for Tiger International, stated in a press release. (Tiger declined to be interviewed for this story.)
Because it has grown, Mews has centered on catching larger fish within the hospitality house. The corporate says the variety of hospitality “manufacturers” that use its instruments has doubled, and a few of its new clients embrace Greatest Western Motels, Weekender and Lark Motels.
To be clear, this doesn’t imply all Greatest Westerns are utilizing Mews now. As with all offers with clients that run a franchising mannequin, Mews is now on an authorized provider listing, nevertheless it nonetheless must contract with particular person franchises to win new enterprise.
