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Here’s another sign of the travel industry’s remarkable boom: a major growth round for one of the B2B startups it serves. beacona data analytics platform for hotels and others in the hospitality industry, closed its Series C worth $370 million. The KKR-led round catapults Lighthouse to a valuation of more than $1 billion.
The company said the funding will be used to continue building more data sets, analysis tools and artificial intelligence functionality. It may also use this massive infusion of capital into acquisitions to grow its business: the company has made four acquisitions so far, and one of them earlier this year — Stardekk — built an integrated hotel software to manage reservations and more.
The company is based out of London, and this is one of the largest tours for a startup based in the city, as well as one of the largest for the travel industry of the year.
For those tracking the performance of Europe’s startup ecosystem right now, Lighthouse’s funding track record is instructive: the company raised $80 million in 2021, at the peak of fundraising.
This latest round is confirmation from investors that it has been doing the right things in the past few years.
In Europe, startups have been battered by slowing activity across a number of technology sectors, geopolitical turmoil, and slow economic growth. Lighthouse has targeted its business towards the global market (currently valued at $15 trillion annually), and its focus on business intelligence and applying newer technology such as AI to deliver it, highlights how data-driven companies continue to see opportunities.
The company’s core toolkit is not directly related to making reservations or managing employees and accounts By itself. Instead, its focus is on business intelligence, specifically analytics and insights. It says it processes 400 terabytes of travel and market data every day, and “leverages artificial intelligence” to deliver customer insights, with products targeting large hotel chains, and others targeting smaller operations.
It says it has more than 70,000 hospitality providers using its tools, with some big names including Holiday Inn, Radisson and NH Hotel Group.
This roundup is a testament to the demand among hotels for better tools to improve their pricing and overall customer proposition, at a time when we have more choice than ever before, and more ways to find and book hotels.
“We’re just starting to make hospitality data and tools more powerful, accessible, and affordable,” Lighthouse CEO Sean Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more active with what we’re working toward.” We hope to speak with him later today to hear more.
The company’s previous round included Spectrum Equity, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, and Highgate Technology Ventures, and all of these investors are also participating in this latest Series C.
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