Why we invested in RoomPriceGenie

Why we invested in RoomPriceGenie, pricing software for small hotels, even though its team is not from CEE.

RoomPriceGenie is our ninth investment. It sits outside our usual focus, and we invested anyway. RoomPriceGenie makes pricing software for hotels. Flashpoint VC introduced us to the founders through our founding member Artis Kehris.

What our member Daniel Marhel says

Our member Daniel Marhel, ex-CPO & CMO at Printify and the driving force behind Cherry's ecommerce sales growth from $5M to $28M, had this to say about RoomPriceGenie:

RoomPriceGenie addresses a very painful problem for small hotel owners: price setting and management. Even small variations in price can mean the difference between a profitable and a loss-making hotel. They address it in a very simple package, which allows hotel owners to basically set up and forget: RoomPriceGenie does all the work for them.

The Problem and Why it Matters

RoomPriceGenie takes on a persistent problem for small to medium-sized hotels: price setting and management. Research shows that price is a key factor in decision making for 85% of travelers. However, only 5% of accommodation providers (mainly large and chain hotels) currently use automated pricing software. RoomPriceGenie is built for the other 95%, which set prices by hand.

How it Works

Hotel owners set it up once and the software sets prices for them. They get time back for guests and the rest of the business. RoomPriceGenie's software provides the needed pricing expertise in an easy-to-use package, accessible for even those with no previous experience in price management systems.

Team

Steered by an exceptional trio of co-founders, Ari Andricopoulos (CEO), Marvin Speh (COO), and Jörg Siegel (CTO), RoomPriceGenie's fully remote team doubled the business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Market and Timing

About 1.15M properties have no automated pricing. The founder expects most of them to adopt it within 5 years.

But they’re not from CEE…

Yes, you read that right: we invested in a team that fall outside our primary focus on early-stage CEE startups, because we want to see, now and then, the best teams anywhere and compare ours with them. RoomPriceGenie, we believe, fits the bill perfectly.

The bottom line

We are thrilled to back RoomPriceGenie thanks to the value the team brings to the hotel industry and our portfolio, and the chance to participate in a top globally ambitious startup journey.

For founders: we look for a big market, a strong team and a real problem, even outside our usual region.