RoomPriceGenie raises CHF 1m round led by Wingman Ventures

 

Wingman Ventures, a new VC based in Zurich, has announced a first investment in RoomPriceGenie. The start-up with more than 100 clients around the world developed a pricing solution for smaller hotels and has now closed a pre-seed round.

 

RoomPriceGenie, which has created a dynamic pricing solution especially designed for smaller hotels, will expand further. The company, based in Zug, Switzerland, has raised a first round of external funding led by Wingman Ventures. “With RoomPriceGenie, we back an innovative solution, which will have huge impact on the hospitality industry in the upcoming years, enabling smaller businesses to remain competitive thanks to the RoomPriceGenie technology”, Pascal Mathis from Wingman Ventures and Co-Founder of the Swiss travel technology success story GetYourGuide said. Despite only launching the first version of its software in the beginning of 2019, the company already now surpassed the 100-client mark. “We are very proud to have achieved a lot this year with a fairly small team. Now we are looking to scale up operations and grow the team. Wingman Ventures is the perfect partner for us as they bring both, experience in the hospitality industry and lots of early stage start-up knowledge” Co-Founder Marvin Speh said. The architect behind the company’s solution is CEO & Co-Founder Ari Andricopoulos, PhD mathematician and former hedge-fund manager. While visiting his father’s bed & breakfast back in 2017, he realised that his father struggled to manage his room prices: “The larger hotels around him were cheaper than him during the off-season and he was often almost empty. But then by autumn, he was already sold out for the festival days next summer”. He wanted to help him but “there was simply no solution for him in the market”. Together with Co-Founders Marvin Speh, COO, and Jörg Siegel, CTO, he developed a solution and founded RoomPriceGenie. With a unique approach to pricing analysis and a focus on affordability, transparency and simplicity, RoomPriceGenie have developed an optimal solution for smaller, independent hotels. In a recent study with clients, they identified that a random set of clients increased their revenue by over 20% using RoomPriceGenie. “These results are great and we are always working on making the algorithm even better”, says Ari. Clients all over the world But that’s not the end of the story: The company has the mission to help small hotels worldwide and aims to expand its portfolio of customers and partners next year. CTO Jörg Siegel says, “We think that small hotels make up the charm of each destination. We want to maintain this charm by helping those hotels to keep up with the big players in the market when it comes to pricing.” And he considers that the success so far proves them right. “We experience demand from all over the world. Our client base stretches from the US West Coast to Japan, and the partnerships with established hotel software companies helps us to leave a global footprint already.” “The RoomPriceGenie team has managed to set up operations for success already at a very early stage. With our experience and our network, we are convinced that we will be able to help them to continue their success story. We are excited for the partnership and look forward to helping the team to achieve the high goals they set for themselves” adds Alex Stöckl from Wingman Ventures who will be joining the firm’s Board of Directors. (Press release)