Notwithstanding the uncertainty surrounding the economy and geopolitics, the demand for travel remains strong. In fact, analysts at Oxford Economics predict that travel demand will increase by 12% this year, resulting in 1.75 billion “arrivals”.

To cater to this growing demand, Mews, a provider of a SaaS platform for hotel management, has secured an additional $75 million in funding.

The investment comes at a pivotal moment in the travel industry.

On the one hand, several European travel tech startups have recently secured significant funding: TravelPerk raised $200 million in January at a $2.7 billion valuation; Hostaway raised $365 million in December 2024; and Tourlane in Germany raised $26 million from Sequoia in November 2024. Furthermore, Prosus acquired Latin American travel player Despegar for $1.7 billion.

However, the outlook is not entirely positive: the impact of tariffs and other economic measures on travel budgets, as well as the uncertainty surrounding geopolitics, remains unclear. Additionally, Expedia has been laying off staff, which could be an isolated incident or a sign of more widespread restructuring.

Mews faces stiff competition from dozens of other companies, including established players like Oracle and other startups like Softbank-backed Cloudbeds.

For the time being, however, Mews appears to be performing well.

The latest funding round was led by Tiger Global, a new investor in the startup, with participation from existing investors Kinnevik, Battery Ventures, and Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. (Battery led Mews’ $33 million Series B, while Kinnevik and Goldman Sachs led the startup’s $185 million Series C in 2022; Kinnevik also led its 2024 Series D of $110 million.)

According to CEO Matt Welle, this latest round is opportunistic, following an approach by Tiger to collaborate with Mews. The company is not disclosing its current valuation, with Welle describing it as a generic growth round. However, he did reveal that Mews plans to raise a significantly larger round in the next year or two.

To put this into perspective: exactly a year ago, when Amsterdam-founded Mews raised its Series D, it was valued at $1.2 billion.

Mews has been experiencing growth, with 6,300 hotels now using its platform, up from 5,000 a year ago. The company also processes $10 billion worth of payments, double the amount from a year ago. In 2024, its revenue exceeded $200 million as it added more customers and services to the platform. One notable example is the acquisition of Atomize, a startup that helps Mews’ users with revenue management. Pitchbook notes that Mews also raised $100 million in debt in September last year to fund acquisitions.

Although a significant portion of Mews’ business is in Europe, where it has achieved 20% market penetration in the DACH region, much of the growth has come from expansion across the Atlantic.

These days, founder and co-CEO Richard Valtr spends most of his time in the U.S., where the company has been focusing its efforts and has doubled its revenues in North America over the past year.

When Valtr founded the company in 2012, he drew on his experience as an independent hotel owner to identify the pain points of running a hotel business. He recognized the opportunity to leverage the internet and the rise of software-as-a-service to create something new.

While there are many point solutions in the hospitality market, Mews takes a comprehensive approach, building its product as an end-to-end solution. It offers software for managing hotel availability and booking, personnel and facilities, payments and accounting, event management, loyalty and guest experience apps, and more.

Unsurprisingly, Welle stated that Mews has been increasing its focus on AI, with an in-house team working on various projects, including customer-facing tools and algorithms to improve the platform’s performance. One example is a new customer profile option that creates “Tweet-sized” summaries of individual guests’ activities and preferences, enabling concierges and receptionists to enhance customer service.

“Mews is redefining what it means to deliver exceptional guest experiences in the hospitality sector and beyond,” said Sara Eadie, who led the investment for Tiger Global, in a statement. (Tiger declined to be interviewed for this story.)

As Mews has grown, it has focused on acquiring larger clients in the hospitality space. The company reports that the number of hospitality “brands” using its tools has doubled, with new customers including Best Western Hotels, Weekender, and Lark Hotels.

It is worth noting that this does not mean all Best Western hotels are now using Mews. As with all deals involving customers with a franchising model, Mews is now on an approved supplier list but still needs to contract with individual franchises to secure new business.