Here is yet one more sign of the travel industry’s noticeable boom: a major growth round for one of the B2B startups servicing it. Lighthouse, a data analytics platform for hotels and others in the hospitality industry, has closed a Series C of $370 million. The KKR-led round catapults Lighthouse to a valuation of over $1 billion.
The funding will be used to continue building out more data sets, analytics tools and AI functionality, the company said. It may also be using this large capital injection for acquisitions to evolve its business: the company has made four acquisitions to date, and one from earlier this year — Stardekk — has built all-in-one hotel software for managing reservations and more.
The company is based out of London, and this is one of the biggest rounds for a startup based in the city, as well as one of the biggest rounds for the travel sector, for this year.
For those tracking how Europe’s startup ecosystem is performing at the moment, Lighthouse’s funding track record is instructive: the company raised $80 million in 2021, at a peak moment for fundraising.
This latest round is an affirmation from investors that it’s been doing the right things in the last several years.
In Europe, startups have been beaten by slower activity across a number of segments of tech, geopolitical turmoil and slow economic growth. Lighthouse has aimed its business at a global market (currently estimated to be worth some $15 trillion annually), and its focus on business intelligence and applying newer technology like AI to providing it, underscores how data-driven businesses continue to see opportunities.
The company’s core set of tools are not directly related to taking bookings or managing staff and accounts per se. Instead, its focus is on business intelligence, specifically analytics and insights. It says that it crunches 400 terabytes of travel and market data daily, and “leverages AI” to provide insights to customers, 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 of the big names including Holiday Inn, Radisson and NH Hotel Group.
The round is a testament to the demand among hotels for better tooling to improve its pricing and overall offer to customers, at a time when we have more choice than ever before, and more ways of finding and booking hotels.
“We’re just getting started in making hospitality data and tools more powerful, accessible, and affordable,” said Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO of Lighthouse, in a statement. “I couldn’t be more energized by what we’re working towards.” We’re hopefully speaking 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.