Mews Secures $100 Million Loan for More M&A

26.09.2024 - 09:45 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Richard Valtr / Adam Harris

Hotel tech startup Mews said Thursday that it has secured $100 million in venture credit to fuel more acquisitions. 

The loan comes from Vista Credit Partners, the subsidiary of Vista Equity Partners with over $8.1 billion in assets. 

Amsterdam-based Mews primarily provides a property-management system for hotels, which handles operations like check-in and check-out, guest management, and housekeeping. Its clients are mostly independent hotel companies. 

Mews has announced nine acquisitions so far. And founder Richard Valtr told Skift earlier this year that more deals are definitely coming. M&A is part of the company’s strategy for fast growth, he said, in addition to adding more clients. 

Some acquisitions have been for staff, and some have been to add properties. The acquisition earlier this year of a Germany-based hotel tech system added 3,500 properties to the Mews portfolio, for example.

There are many small hotel tech companies worldwide. Because of so much competition and a tighter funding market, it often makes sense for those small companies to consolidate rather than continue independently. For a well-funded company like Mews, that works out well.

“The market is ripe for consolidation,” Valtr said in a statement on Thursday. “Having successfully acquired nine companies to date, the funds from Vista Credit Partners further progress our position to continue investing in M&A via our investment and corporate development arm, Mews Ventures.”

Adam Harris, the CEO of Mews competitor Cloudbeds, told Skift earlier this year why M&A has not been a growth strategy for his company. Harris said mergers use up resources better devoted to improving the core product, and that he believes resulting tech transitions can be off-putting to clients.

Mews has raised a total of $335 million in venture capital from investors including Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Kinnevik, and Revaia. 

That includes $110 million that the company raised in March at a $1.2 billion valuation. At that time, Mews said it had surpassed $100 million in annual revenue. The company said it has processed over $8 billion in gross transactions on behalf of hotels so far this year, up 54%.

The company said its tech is now used by more than 75,000 hotel staff at more than 5,500 properties in 85 countries. Clients include Generator-Freehand, Strawberry (formerly Nordic Choice), The Social Hub, and Airelles Collection.

The market share leader, Oracle Hospitality, has roughly 40,000 properties in its portfolio.

Mews said it is working to advance its tech and hire more staff. For example: Mews recently released a new AI search tool so that hotel staff can ask questions in everyday language, such as, “How many check-ins did I have yesterday?”