In July 2022 it had closed a €2 million round led by The Techshop, now Smartpricing, an Italian startup that has developed revenue management software for hotels that allows hoteliers to increase their turnover through technologies that use machine learning models, announces the completion of a €13 million Series A investment round (€11 million equity and €2 million of lines of bank credits). The round is led by
Partech
, an international venture capital firm based in Paris, which with Simone Riva (senior principal) and Philippe Collombel (co-founding partner) has decided to invest in Italy for the first time. This is also the first investment of their new Partech Venture fund, in which CDP Venture Capital has invested through the International Fund of Funds program. The collection process also saw the participation of The Techshop with Gianluca D’Agostinoand Azimut Digitech Fund with the help of FNDX. Also joining the round were the founders of Bending Spoons. And it’s just D’Agostino, co-founder and managing partner of The Techshop who tells Startupbusiness how important news like this from Smartpricing is for the ecosystem: “Smartpricing’s journey shows that a talented and motivated team based in Trento, which is not a big European hub like London or Berlin are, with the right product can scale the market in just three years and become one of the most interesting SaaS in Europe in the world of hospitalitytech. A message from us at The Techshop for all entrepreneurs who do startups and innovation: consider the importance of choosing the right Italian fund in the seed phase, then execute a strategy together with him to create a valuable investment proposition. In 12-24 months, this path can allow us to involve top-level international investors such as Partech”. Thanks to this new funding, Smartpricing aims to become one of the leaders in the sector, offering innovative solutions for rate management and beyond, to accommodation facilities around the world. The AI-powered technology is designed to support thousands of hotels, bed & breakfasts, residences and vacation rentals by automating several daily operations and managing prices automatically. Since its establishment, Smartpricing has grown significantly by providing its service in 17 countries around the world, focusing mainly on the DACH area and Italy. With the aim of reaching 100 million euros in annual turnover in the medium term, the company plans to substantially expand its team and launch new innovative products, consolidating its position in the 360-degree software and fintech vertical for the hotel sector.
Three thousand users, 30% increase in turnover
Smartpricing, founded in 2020 in Arco in Trentino by Luca Rodella, Eugenio Bancaro and Tommaso Centonze, uses a proprietary algorithm that processes different types of data, including those relating to the market, saturation and price trends in the specific geographical area and the history of the hotel, to propose the best possible price to improve the performance of accommodation facilities. The goal is to maximize at the same time the occupancy rate of the structure and the average price per room, based on the characteristics of the structure, reference market and external variables. Today, the company manages more than 2 million bookings for more than three thousand properties, increasing their turnover by more than 30% on average. Recently, it has also launched an innovative product for managing payments and extra services via QR code, with more than 200 facilities already active. 2024 will see further investments in technology for Smartpricing, to launch new products, to enhance the algorithm and platform, and to increase the user base worldwide. For the future, the ambition is to become an international leader in revenue management for small and medium-sized hospitality facilities, consolidating its position in the 360-degree software and fintech vertical for the hotel sector. “We had several potential lead investors, but we opted for Partech, because of the fund’s notoriety, knowledge of our market and the approach of Simone and the people involved in the process. We believe they are the right partners for our great ambition and the global growth goals we have had from the beginning. It should be emphasized that this round, despite the extremely negative period for investments in startups, was one of the largest ever to take place in our region, on a 100% Trentino company, further evidence of the important results achieved so far. We believe we are one day in a journey that will lead us to help tens of thousands of facilities around the world with various products that do not exist on the market today,” says Luca Rodella, CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “We are excited to start working together with Luca, Eugenio and Tommaso to create an international leader in the hotel/hospitality software vertical. The team, with whom we began interacting about 12 months ago, has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to execute, a clear strategic vision and a level of ambition comparable to other successful teams in our portfolio. In particular, we think that Italy is one of the ideal markets from which to start thanks to the growth trend in the number of accommodation facilities and the high fragmentation of software providers in the hotel sector. The objective of this funding round is to consolidate the position in the Italian and German-speaking markets and to launch additional high-potential markets, as has already been done in the past with other investments in the SMB software world,” says Simone Riva, senior principal of Partech.
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