Mews closes $185 Million in Fundraising to Transform the Hospitality Industry for Brands and their Guests
Mews announced it has closed its Series C round at $185 million. The equity investment was led by Kinnevik and the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management with participation from Revaia, Derive Ventures and Orbit Capital; and returning investors including Battery Ventures, Notion Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Thayer Ventures, and henQ. Mews also expanded its existing debt facility with Columbia Lake Partners. This latest round brings the total amount raised to date to $225 million. The funding will be used to accelerate product innovation, global expansion and M&A.
The fundraising caps a year of significant growth for Mews; revenue is over 174% higher year-over-year and Gross Payment Volume (GPV) increased 227% year-over-year to $2.3 billion. Customers include Nordic Choice, Accor, The Social Hub, Les Airelles, Life House, Pandox and Generator-Freehand.
“Our mission is to transform the hospitality industry with cloud solutions that make hospitality more rewarding for everyone,” said Matthijs Welle, CEO of Mews. “This funding will enable the Mews team to accelerate some very ambitious plans in product & engineering, continue our international expansion and ensure we can serve the most forward-thinking hotel owners and operators in the world.”
Richard Valtr, Founder of Mews commented, “The hotel industry has come roaring back this year across almost every region and segment. At the same time we’re seeing a very changed industry that’s embracing technology to modernize and streamline their operations. Our customers are using the Mews Hospitality Cloud to build more resilient and profitable business models with connected guest journeys, subscriptions, hybrid hospitality, long stays, and much more. With this funding, we’re going to continue pouring investment into R&D; we have a very exciting pipeline of product releases over the next few quarters.”
In 2022, the company announced Mews for Salesforce, the first native integration between a property management system and the Salesforce CRM. Mews announced strategic partnerships with Leading Hotels of the World and Relais & Châteaux, and was named a Major Player by IDC in their first-ever IDC MarketScape for ‘Worldwide Hospitality Property Management Systems’. The company also completed the acquisition of the POS innovator, Bizzon.
Akhil Chainwala, Investment Director at Kinnevik commented, “Richard, Matthijs, and the broader Mews team have an intimate understanding of hoteliers’ needs and have taken a product-first approach to develop a modern solution in a sector ripe for disruption. As cloud adoption in hospitality accelerates driven by more complex guest needs and rising costs, Mews is best positioned to rebuild the sector’s digital plumbing. We are excited to welcome a fourth travel investment to our portfolio and look forward to supporting Mews in the next phase of its journey.”
“Closing a large round in this environment speaks to the tremendous growth and future potential of Mews,” said Kirk Lepke, Managing Director in the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “Hoteliers have experienced a lot of challenges over recent years, driving increased demand for cloud-native platforms, like Mews, to help them modernize, improve the guest experience, and create efficiencies through smart automation. With their open architecture and fully integrated payment capabilities, Mews is heavily relied upon as a mission critical solution.”
In 2022, the company launched Mews Ventures, the investment arm of Mews. With multiple deals closed and pending, this dedicated M&A team has been formed to fuel growth and innovation for Mews.