We have yet another sign of the boom in the travel industry: a major fundraise by one of the B2B startups serving the space. Lighthouse, a data analytics platform for hotels and others in the hospitality industry, has closed a Series C round of $370 million. The KKR-led round catapults Lighthouse to a valuation of over $1 billion.
Lighthouse said it will use the funding to continue building more data sets, analytics tools and AI functionality. It may also be using this large capital injection for acquisitions to expand its business: The company has made four acquisitions to date. One of those, Stardekk, happened earlier this year, bringing Lighthouse an all-in-one hotel software for managing reservations and more.
At $370 million, the round is one of the biggest for a startup headquartered in London, as well as one of the biggest rounds for the travel sector this year.
For those tracking how Europe’s startup ecosystem is performing at the moment, Lighthouse’s fundraising track record is instructive: The company raised $80 million in 2021, when fundraising for startups was at its peak. This new round could be seen as an affirmation from investors that the startup’s been checking the right boxes in the last few years.
Startups in Europe have been grappling with slower activity in a number of tech subsectors, geopolitical turmoil, and sluggish economic growth. Lighthouse caters to the global travel market, currently estimated to be worth some $15 trillion annually, and its focus on providing business intelligence while applying newer technology like AI underscores how data-driven companies 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, it provides business intelligence, specifically analytics and insights. Lighthouse says it crunches 400 terabytes of travel and market data daily, and “leverages AI” to provide insights to customers. Its products target large hotel chains and others focusing on smaller operations.
The startup says its tools are used by more than 70,000 hospitality providers, which include big names like Holiday Inn, Radisson and NH Hotel Group.
The round is a testament to the hotel sector’s demand for better tooling to improve their pricing and overall offering to customers — particularly important at a time travelers have more choices 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.” TechCrunch is hopefully speaking with Fitzpatrick later today to hear more.
The company’s previous round saw participation from Spectrum Equity, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, and Highgate Technology Ventures, and all of these investors are also investing in this latest Series C.