happyhotel receives an 2 Million Euro investment to revolutionize the hospitality industry
- Led by the start-up BW Innovation Fund: Offenburg start-up receives 2 million euros in seed round
- The user-friendly and cloud-based revenue management software is one of the leading software solutions in the D/A/CH market for hotels, apartments and smaller chains — in doing so, it counteracts staff shortages in the hotel industry
- 30 new jobs will be created at the Offenburg site
Offenburg, 04.10.2023.
Offenburg-based technology start-up happyhotel receives fresh growth capital. As the company announced today, the start-up BW Innovation Fund — managed by MBG Baden-Württemberg, seed + speed ventures by Carsten Maschmeyer and the Wecken & Cie family office — took a significant part in the seven-figure investment. In addition to renowned investors, numerous well-known business angels with experience in the sector also support the young start-up. There are also regionally renowned entrepreneurs such as Swen Laempe, founder of vioma GmbH, Marco Beicht from Powercloud and Fabian Silberer and Marco Reinbold from sevDesk.
happyhotel is revolutionizing the hotel industry with the help of artificial intelligence
happyhotel helps hotels and apartments generate more revenue using AI (artificial intelligence). By automating price management, hoteliers primarily save time and money, which enables them to concentrate on serving their guests. Rafael Weissmüller, CEO of happyhotel, mentioned in this context that the software is already being used by over 1,000 hotels worldwide. With the freshly received capital, happyhotel plans to further develop its “software-as-a-service product” as well as investments in sales and internationalization. The goal is to employ over 60 people by the end of 2024 and to create the structures for further scaling.
Hotels under pressure — happyhotel hilft
At present, around 80% of hotels do not yet use dynamic prices. For hoteliers, this is a major competitive disadvantage compared to those who already work with dynamic prices. Small and medium-sized hotels are particularly disadvantaged here, as hiring a revenue manager is very cost-intensive and does not pay off with just a few rooms. happyhotel enables every hotel to work with dynamic prices and experience shows that turnover can be increased by between 5% and 25%. Currently, mostly large chains work with revenue managers who manually adjust prices, using Happyhotel and the intelligent algorithmic pricing system in addition. Leading in the DACH market: Our expertise in revenue management The investments should also be used to revolutionize the product through the use of advanced AI. The aim of the start-up is to holistically automate sales processes in hotels. In the future, even more data should flow into the system in order to be able to optimize not only price optimization but also further marketing and sales decisions. In addition to the already developed core market in the DACH region, expansion into other countries and markets is planned in the future. Industry experts Arne Mundt from the Halbersbacher Hospitality Group, Jan Seifried and Dr. Nils Asmussen from the Fit Reisen Group as well as the experienced start-up business angels Julian Krenge & Dr. Jens Hutzschenreuter also support this.
About happyhotel
happyhotel is a cloud provider and has developed a SaaS tool (Software as a Service). The company was founded in October 2019 by Marius Müller, Sebastian Kuhnhardt and Rafael Weissmüller and is currently based in the Offenburg Technology Park. The cloud-based software solution automates the entire price management of hotels with the help of artificial intelligence. happyhotel analyses various factors such as booking behavior, events, occupancy and the competitive situation. Happyhotel thus enables small and medium-sized hotels, apartments and smaller hotel chains to work with dynamic room prices, increase their turnover and operate more profitably.
About MBG
MBG Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg GmbH is one of the major venture capital providers in Germany. It invests in the public interest and is the partner for start-ups and SMEs. It currently provides over 224 million euros in equity capital to almost 740 companies in Baden-Württemberg. As a fund manager, she manages several funds in the venture capital sector for institutional investors such as banks, insurance companies, foundations and the public sector, such as the start-up BW Innovation Fund, which is active here. MBG's deep networking with the economy, through the circle of shareholders, associations and the banking industry, is the starting platform for faster growth for portfolio companies.
About seed + speed ventures
seed + speed Ventures is a pre-seed and seed VC focused on B2B and enterprise software start-ups in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. As a lead or co-investor, seed + speed initially invests up to 500,000€ in promising young start-ups and supports the development of sustainably successful sales structures. Through tailor-made sales coaching with in-house sales trainer, seed + speed creates active added value for the operational business of portfolio companies in order to enable faster growth.
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