The cash injection will enable the company to accelerate the growth process through investments in technology, AI, and sales capabilities, helping tens of thousands of accommodation facilities worldwide
Smartpricing, an Italy-based startup that has developed a machine-learning-powered revenue management system that enables hoteliers and professional B&B to increase their turnover, announces the completion of a Series A investment round of €13M (€11M in equity + €2M in bank credit lines).
The round is led by Paris-based VC firm Partech and represents its first investment in Italy. Simone Riva (Senior Principal) and Philippe Collombel (Co-Founding Partner) took the lead in this round. Smartpricing is also the first investment of the firm’s new fund, Partech Venture. Existing investors also participated in the round: The Techshop with Gianluca D’Agostino (lead investor of the Seed round in 2022) and Azimut Digitech Fund with the support of FNDX. Bending Spoons founders also joined the round.
Smartpricing was founded in Arco (Trentino region) in 2020 by Luca Rodella, Eugenio Bancaro, and Tommaso Centonze. The company uses a proprietary algorithm that processes various types of data, including market, saturation, price trends in a specific geographic area and the hotel’s history data, to propose the best price point to maximize hotels and B&Bs revenues.
“Our AI-based technology is designed to support thousands of hotels, bed & breakfasts, residences, and holiday homes by automating their daily operations through continuous price optimization”, explains the CEO Luca Rodella. Recently, the company also launched an innovative product for managing payments and extra services via QR code, with more than 200 active structures.
Since its foundation, Smartpricing has managed over 1.5 million bookings for more than 3,000 structures, increasing its turnover by an average of 30%. The company has an extensive presence in 17 countries, with a particular focus on Italy and the DACH region, demonstrating its effectiveness and scalability in various markets. Smartpricing was also selected in the Sifted list by the Financial Times as one of the 10 most promising Italian startups of 2023, and by LinkedIn as one of the top 10 Italian startups.
In the future, Smartpricing aspires to become the international leader in revenue management for small and medium-sized hospitality structures. With the clear goal of reaching €100M in annual turnover, the company plans to expand its team substantially and launch new innovative products, further consolidating its position in the software and fintech vertical for the hospitality sector.
“We had several potential lead investors to partner with, but we opted for Partech because of its strong brand, its knowledge of our market and the approach of Simone and the people involved in the process. We believe they are the right partner for our great ambition and for the global growth objectives we have set from the beginning. It is worth emphasizing that this round, despite the global tech investment slowdown, is one of the largest Series A ever in Italy (and in Trentino specifically), as further evidence of the important achievements to date. Nevertheless, we still feel on day 1 of a journey that will lead us to help tens of thousands of accommodation facilities around the world with products that do not exist yet in the market today.” says Luca Rodella, CEO and co-founder.
“We are excited to start working together with Luca, Eugenio and Tommaso to create an international leader in the software vertical for the hotel/hospitality sector. The team, with whom we started interacting about 12 months ago, has demonstrated an extraordinary execution ability, a clear strategic vision and a level of ambition comparable to other successful teams in our portfolio. Italy is one of the ideal markets to start from in this vertical due to the growing number of hospitality structures and the high fragmentation of software providers in the hotellerie space. The goal of this funding round is to consolidate the position in the Italian and German-speaking markets and to launch further high-potential markets, as already done in the past with other investments in software space for SMBs.” says Simone Riva, Senior Principal of Partech.
“The journey that began in Spring 2022 with the Smartpricing’s founders continues, and the targets become even more ambitious. After leading the Seed round in 2022, we have supported the company in its rapid growth path and in the definition of the new financing round. We therefore enthusiastically participate in Series A alongside Partech, to support together the next stages of evolution of Smartpricing’s SaaS offering and further expansion in Italy and abroad”.
Gianluca D’Agostino, Co-founder and Managing Partner of The Techshop.