For over a decade, Inovia has supported the rise of hospitality technology leaders in the accommodation sector, such as Hopper, Super.com, and Luxury Retreats (acquired by Airbnb in 2017). What excites us about the travel and hospitality technology sector is the vast spending potential from both consumers and businesses, coupled with the chance to spearhead the ongoing digital transformation of the industry.
We invest in innovative platforms challenging conventional players by leading the charge in shaping the future of hospitality technology. These dynamics are the foundation of our hospitality technology thesis and underpin our decision to invest in Guesty.
The Digital Challenge in Accomodation
Travellers have increasingly elevated expectations for seamless digital booking experiences. This new expectation presents a challenge for property managers to innovate quickly and enhance their offerings while seamlessly integrating back-end functionalities to streamline operations.
This opportunity is even more pronounced in independent short-term rental (STR) property management because up until now there hasn’t been a rinse-and-repeat software implementation across properties. Independent STR operators often have mixed inventories across hotels, single-family and multi-family properties. The result is a highly fragmented hospitality market landscape, the byproduct of which is a disjointed tech stack for property managers that creates more problems than it solves.
The solution to this challenge is a property management system (PMS) that acts as a system of record to simplify operations. A PMS is analogous to an ERP system: it’s at the heart of the tech stack and integrates across all functions for an accommodation business in a single pane of glass. After spending the past few years digging into the PMS landscape and refining our thesis, Inovia is thrilled to invest in Guesty as part of a $130M Series F alongside KKR.
Why Guesty?
Guesty has established itself as the consolidator in the PMS market. The Company is at the epicentre of a growing and increasingly sophisticated STR PMS tech ecosystem. Industry partners recognize Guesty as the gold standard for PMSs, exemplified by its premium partner status with Airbnb, Expedia, VRBO, and Booking.com.
Guesty’s success is a testament to its distinctive leadership and unmatched product quality. We have been impressed by the company’s leadership team. Under the guidance of Co-Founder and CEO Amiad Soto, Guesty has cultivated a culture of grit, collaboration, and outstanding execution. This environment has not only attracted top talent (eg. Vered Raviv-Schwarz joined as President and COO from Fiverr) but has also propelled the company toward its next phase of growth. Above all else, we heard incredibly strong customer love for Guesty’s product. Customers can’t imagine running their business without Guesty, praising its product quality and reliability, making it a sticky solution.
In addition to its organic growth trajectory, Guesty identified the potential within the fragmented STR PMS technology landscape, leveraging strategic acquisitions to accelerate its expansion. The team has demonstrated a highly sophisticated approach to identifying targets, nurturing deals, executing transactions, and performing post-merger integrations. This strategic expansion positions them as a dominant consolidator in the PMS market. With six successful acquisitions completed since 2021, Guesty has laid a solid foundation for the promising opportunities that lie ahead.
We’re excited to work alongside Amiad, Vered, and the Guesty team. Their mission to redefine the PMS category aligns perfectly with Inovia’s commitment to supporting visionary founders in creating global, sustainable technology companies.