Hospitality API Start Up Secures $1.75M in Seed Funding

Impala, a universal API for the hotel industry, has secured $1.75 million in seed funding, bringing their full seed raise to more than $2 million.

Impala connects third-party travel tech businesses to hospitality property management systems (PMS), potentially saving the industry money and optimizing the staying experience of millions of hotel guests globally.

Investment contributors include Greg Marsh and Demetrios Zoppos, founders of private home rental service onefinestay, and the HOWZAT Partners group, who put funding behind hotel comparison giant Trivago.

CEO Ben Stephenson and COO Charles Cowley founded Impala in 2017; their API empowers tech innovators with easy-access insights from hotels around the world.

The business has gained the support of Eric Nadalin and Tony Jamous, founders of San Francisco-based messaging API Nexmo, which was sold to Vonage Holdings in 2016 for $230 million. Venture capital firms Kima Ventures and Pioneers Ventures have also invested in Impala. 

Impala offers and easy way for hotels to access PMS data. 

Every hotel sends every piece of data it collects to a PMS system, from customer email addresses to mini-fridge preferences and most-bought PPV movies. Very few of the nearly 300 PMS services in the marketplace offer an easy way for third-party businesses to access their data. Plus, accessing and integrating the PMS data from a single system can take up to 18 months and cost a business tens of thousands of dollars. Impala addresses these issues.

Ben and Charles developed the universal API concept at the Techstars start-up accelerator in Berlin in 2017, and have now signed 65 businesses onto their waiting list before launch.