Regardless of clouds of uncertainty looming over the financial system and geopolitics, individuals nonetheless need to journey. To fulfill that demand, Mews, an Amsterdam-founded startup constructing an SaaS platform for lodge administration, has raised a contemporary $75 million.
The funding is coming at a crossroad within the journey business. On one hand are constructive alerts. Analysts at Oxford Economics forecast that the business will develop by 12% this 12 months, figuring out 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.
Nevertheless it’s not all rosy. It’s unclear how tariffs and different financial manoeuvres will impression individuals’s journey budgets, to not point out the uncertainty over geopolitics. It’s additionally notable that Expedia has been shedding employees — may or not it’s a one-off transfer to enhance effectivity, or is it a bellwether of extra to come back?
Mews additionally has dozens of rivals, which embrace incumbents like Oracle in addition to different startups like Softbank-backed Cloudbeds.
For now, issues look like buzzing alongside for Mews.
Tiger World, a brand new backer, led this newest spherical, with participation from earlier buyers 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 instructed TechCrunch in an interview. Particularly, it got here after Tiger approached Mews in search of to work collectively extra. Mews shouldn’t be 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 12 months or two.
For some context: precisely a 12 months in the past, when Amsterdam-founded Mews raised its Collection D, it was valued at $1.2 billion.
Mews has been rising. At present, some 6,300 accommodations use its platform, up from 5,000 a 12 months in the past, and it now processes $10 billion value of funds, double from a 12 months in the past. In 2024, its income crossed $200 million because it added extra prospects and extra companies to the platform. One instance: Mews not too long ago acquired a startup referred to as Atomize to assist its customers with income administration. Pitchbook notes that Mews additionally raised $100 million in debt in September final 12 months 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), a variety of the expansion has come from a giant push throughout the pond.
As of late, founder (and co-CEO) Richard Valtr spends most of his time within the U.S., the place the corporate has been focusing quite a bit — it doubled revenues in North America within the final 12 months.
When Valtr based the corporate in 2012, he did so understanding most of the ache factors of operating a lodge enterprise. He had been an impartial 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 business, constructing its product with the idea of being end-to-end. It provides software program for managing lodge availability and reserving on-line, instantly and thru third-party platforms; instruments for managing lodge personnel and services; fee and accounting instruments; occasion administration software program; loyalty and visitor expertise apps, and extra.
Maybe predictably, Welle mentioned that Mews has not too long ago been doubling down on AI. It has an in-house staff engaged on completely different tasks — not solely customer-facing agentic instruments, but in addition algorithms to enhance how Mews works. One instance, he mentioned, 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 World, mentioned in an announcement. (Tiger declined to be interviewed for this story.)
Because it has grown, Mews has targeted 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 prospects embrace Greatest Western Accommodations, Weekender and Lark Accommodations.
To be clear, this doesn’t imply all Greatest Westerns are utilizing Mews now. As with all offers with prospects that run a franchising mannequin, Mews is now on an authorised provider listing, nevertheless it nonetheless must contract with particular person franchises to win new enterprise.
