11/20/2025
Ramp raises $300M, valuation soars to $32B
Corporate spending management platform Ramp has raised $300M. The financing round along with an employee tender offer has brought the company’s valuation to $32B. The funding follows the company’s $500M raise in July and $200M raise in June. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the raise with support from existing investors such as D1 Capital Partners, Founders Fund, GIC, Avenir Growth, Coatue, Thrive Global, Sutter Hill Ventures, T. Rowe Price and Glade Brook Capital, Partners among others. Read More
11/24/2025
Oyo Assets raises $13.9M to pursue hotel acquisitions
OYO Assets, also known as Sunday PropTech, has secured 125 crore rupees (US$13.95M) in new funding from institutional and private investors, with InCred leading the round. The company focuses on acquiring and developing hotels in India’s premium and mid-premium segments. OYO Assets will use the funds to support growth, expand asset management, and pursue hotel acquisitions, targeting 12 deals this financial year, with seven in advanced stages of discussion. Read More
11/20/2025
Mews and YouLend deliver $3.23M in Flexible Financing to hotels across Europe and the US
Mews, the operating system for hospitality and shared spaces, has announced that its embedded financing partnership with YouLend has provided nearly €2M ($3.23M) funding to hotels across Europe and the US. With the partnership now live across multiple eligible markets, hotels can access flexible funding directly through the Mews platform. The latest addition of France completes the rollout, extending Flexible Financing to one of Europe’s most dynamic hospitality markets. Read More
12/04/2025
InnKey partners with Marriott International to power Series by Marriott hotels across India
InnKey’s next-generation, end-to-end cloud platform will elevate guest experiences, streamline operations, and accelerate profitability across Marriott International’s new brand portfolio. InnKey, India’s leading enterprise hospitality technology platform, has partnered with Marriott International to power its new brand, Series by Marriott™, across India. The collaboration begins with a phased rollout across India, covering 84 operational hotels and 31 in the pipeline, and will progressively expand into other emerging markets. Read More
11/20/2025
Cloudbeds Partners with Klaviyo to Empower Hoteliers with Data-Driven Marketing and Personalized Guest Experiences
Cloudbeds, the intelligent unified platform powering hotel growth, announced a new partnership with Klaviyo, the B2C CRM. By connecting Cloudbeds’ property management system (PMS) with Klaviyo hoteliers can automate communications, increase direct bookings, and strengthen guest relationships. This integration brings marketing and operations onto the same page. With Klaviyo, Cloudbeds users can turn every guest interaction into a revenue opportunity — driving smarter targeting, higher conversion, and more loyal guests. Read More
12/05/2025
Kerten Hospitality Selects Canary Technologies to Power Its Global Hotel Portfolio
Canary Technologies, the award-winning global leader in hotel guest management technology, announced that Kerten Hospitality has chosen Canary’s AI-powered Guest Management System to digitize operations and enhance the guest experience across its growing hotel portfolio. Kerten Hospitality operates a diverse collection of lifestyle hotels across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. The group is known for creating locally inspired destinations that blend design, community and modern comfort. Read More
12/05/2025
Hotel booking ‘front door’ is changing with AI
Generative and agentic AI could shift the hotel distribution balance, and suppliers stand to benefit. At The Phocuswright Conference in San Diego, Richard Holden, former general manager of Google Travel, Stephen Kaufer, founder and former CEO of Tripadvisor, and Sanjay Vakil, CEO and co-founder of DirectBooker, discussed how AI is changing the “front door” of hotel booking. According to Holden, AI is likely to change travel aggregators’ power and position. “I do think new front doors are going to be created here,” Holden said. “From a supplier perspective, that’s an opportunity to change the dynamic that’s existed for the past 20 years.” Read More
11/26/2025
Evolve acquires Guestworks portfolio from Vacasa
Vacation rental management company Evolve has acquired Guestworks’ portfolio from Vacasa for an undisclosed amount. The Guestworks solution provides technology for short-term rental operators who oversee their own properties. Guestworks’ 1,000 portfolios are included in the asset purchase transaction. Evolve co-founder CEO Brian Egan said the acquisition bolsters its leadership in hybrid, tech-enabled vacation rental management. Read More
11/24/2025
Innovations in hospitality tech: WorldVue’s COMPASS & ATLAS takes guest services & IT operations to the next level
WorldVue’s customizable COMPASS web application for personalized guest services includes ChatGPT-style customer support, room temperature controls, and entertainment services including casting of content from own Netflix and other accounts. WorldVue’s COMPASS – launched earlier this year – allows guests to use their phones to interact with room settings, entertainment services, and more. The solution is part of a wider WorldVue strategy to craft personalized guest experiences while delivering effective network monitoring and control services to property owners and operators, the company says. Read More
11/20/2025
Bespoke Hotels Selects Canary Technologies to Enhance the Digital Guest Journey
Canary Technologies, the award-winning global leader in hotel guest management technology, has announced that Bespoke Hotels chose to bring Canary’s mobile-first Guest Management System to a majority of its portfolio. With more than 50 hotels nationwide, Bespoke Hotels is one of the UK’s leading hospitality groups. The collaboration forms part of Bespoke’s wider drive to modernize operations and elevate the guest journey, combining the group’s hallmark personalized service with Canary’s industry-leading digital solutions. Read More
11/28/2025
Thai Hotel Chain RoomQuest Becomes World’s First Fully AI-Automated Hospitality Group
Thai hotel chain RoomQuest, in partnership with US tech firm Opsian Technologies, has announced its transformation into the world’s first fully AI-automated hospitality group. The comprehensive AI system will manage all core operational functions across its 52 properties, including dynamic pricing, housekeeping, guest sentiment analysis, and back-office administration. Read More
11/27/2025
Pertlink Named Lead Hospitality Information Technology Partner for Moon World Resorts
Pertlink has been invited to join the visionary Moon World Resorts projects as lead partner for Hospitality Information Technology — a key component of what will become one of the world’s most transformative hospitality, entertainment, and experiential destinations. Featured in the newly released 2025 Moon World Resorts Brochure, Pertlink joins an elite global Development Team shaping these groundbreaking, 312-metre-tall spherical destination resorts. Read More
11/22/2025
Future of hotel TV: Personalizing in-room entertainment
Today’s travelers expect more than just a comfortable room—they want the same familiar entertainment experience they enjoy at home. The webinar, “Future of Hotel TV: New Standards in Streaming, Casting & Personalization,” hosted by HOTELS Magazine in partnership with Samsung, explored how services like casting and streaming are transforming in-room entertainment standards, helping deliver a frictionless guest experience and streamlining operational costs. Read More
11/19/2025
Card-Free, Wireless, and Accelerating Fast: The Future of Hotel Access Begins Now
Hotel technology is entering a new phase. Future locking systems are moving card-free, powered by BLE, NFC, and cloud-managed mobile keys. At the same time, digitalization is accelerating across every touchpoint—from cloud PMS platforms to automation and AI-supported operations. But while the future is wireless, the present is more complex. Yet despite the rise of mobile access, one reality remains: Most hotels today operate in a hybrid era, where mobile keys and physical cards must coexist. Guests adopt digital access at different speeds. Infrastructure upgrades often happen in phases. And operational continuity remains essential. Read More
11/20/2025
Peek secures $70M to build out AI
Tours and activities platform Peek has secured $70M in funding to expand its AI platform. The round was led by growth equity firm Springcoast Partners, with participation form existing investors such as WestCap, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Eric Schmidt, Jack Dorsey and Kayak founder Paul English. As part of the announcement, Perk also confirmed its acquisition of online ticketing software company ACME Ticketing and attraction management system Connect&GO. Peek said the acquisitions expand its reach to over 150 million customers, with ACME bringing expertise in ticketing, memberships and donations and Connect&GO offering “all-in-one attraction management” that includes RFID technology and on-site visitor tools. Read More
12/04/2025
Capital One Ventures, United Airlines Ventures invest in Mindtrip
Capital One Ventures and United Airlines Ventures (UAV) have invested in Mindtrip, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2025. The AI-powered travel platform did not disclose how much the two firms invested but said the company has raised $22.5M in total. “We started Mindtrip with a vision to turn travel inspiration into action, and the response from both the industry and travelers has been extraordinary,” said Mindtrip co-founder and CEO Andy Moss. “Whether helping travelers uncover hidden gems or giving destinations and hotels new ways to engage their guests, Mindtrip is redefining how travel is planned and experienced. Read More
12/03/2025
DreamFolks acquires 60% stake in Dubai-based Easy to Travel
DreamFolks has acquired a 60% stake in Dubai-based Easy to Travel (ETT), investing approximately $4M. India-based DreamFolks, an airport services aggregator, said the move strengthens its international presence and helps work towards its vision of a “building a global experience ecosystem.” ETT provides access to airport loungers and other airport services through contracts with lounges, currently operating in over 120 countries and 500 airports globally. Read More
11/26/2025
Emirates teams up with OpenAI to drive AI adoption
Emirates is looking to drive AI adoption across the airline through a partnership with OpenAI. The collaboration will see the deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise alongside training to help implement AI capabilities across the carrier. “We see enormous potential for AI technology to support our business requirements, helping us tackle complex commercial challenges, strengthening our operations and enhancing the customer experience.” said Ali Serdar Yakut, Emirates’ EVP of IT. Read More
11/25/2025
Pangea acquires social app Overlap to address travel tech fragmentation
Pangea, a platform for solo travelers and digital nomads, has acquired Overlap, a social app that allows these travelers to connect with friends on their trips. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2020, Pangea said the acquisition is an initial step in its plan to address fragmentation in travel technology. According to Pangea founder and CEO, Matt Gray, fragmentation is a major root cause of why planning and organizing travel is so difficult. Pangea is “committed to not only building innovative tools in whitespace areas to make it easier and more connected but also to consolidating the best founder lead apps into one cohesive platform, all underpinned by AI, so you don’t have to juggle 20 different tools.” Read More
11/28/2025
Oyo-Parent Prism Edges Toward a Third IPO Attempt With New Plan to Raise $744M
Oyo’s parent company, Prism, is once again making preparations to head to the public markets. The company has called an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) for December 20, where it will ask shareholders for ermission to raise INR 66.5B ($744M) through a fresh issue of shares. Prism has not commented on the potential valuation it will seek, and the EGM documents that were accessed by Skift do not reference any valuation band or offer price expectations. But Prism’s planned IPO could be one of India’s largest in recent times for travel companies. Read More
11/23/2025
Google Unveils AI Agent for Travel Bookings
Google is seriously upping its travel game, evolving its search engine towards acting like a comprehensive travel assistant. They’re actively developing an AI tool, agent-based mind you, that can handle those tricky travel bookings all by itself. Right now, it’s tackling restaurants and local services, but flights and hotels are definitely on the horizon. In a recent blog post, Google made known that “agentic restaurant bookings” are starting to roll out across the U.S., thanks to their new “AI Mode,” – which, by the way, doesn’t require you to be part of Google Labs. Read More
11/24/2025
PhocusWire’s weekly travel tech news briefs: Cloudbeds, Delta, Selfbook and more
City Sightseeing has launched an AI-powered version of its app, developed with PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup iWander, adding an AI assistant, AI-guided walking tours and an AI commerce engine. Etraveli Group partnered with Yuno to bring its travel-specific fraud solution Precision to more markets through Yuno’s single API. Merchants can activate Precision’s machine learning risk engine at checkout, gaining real-time fraud insights while keeping payments seamless. Yuno supports more than 1,000 payment methods in over 200 countries. Read More
12/02/2025
Travel’s new front door: AI discovery surges as search slips
Nearly 4 in 10 U.S. travelers have used gen AI when researching their trips in the past 12 months, using either AI platforms like ChatGPT or AI-powered search features such as Google’s AI Mode. According to Phocuswright’s latest research report, Search Slips, AI Surges: Travel’s New Front Door?, this is an 11-point increase in just one year. And while general search still leads all other research tools, its share is dropping as AI usage grows, raising the question of whether gen AI platforms could eventually overtake traditional search as the most-used online trip planning resource. Read More
12/02/2025
3 key shifts happening in the corporate travel landscape
The corporate travel landscape is being shaped by trends such as a focus on partnerships, AI, and changing traveler expectations. During an executive panel at The Phocuswright Conference in San Diego last month, executives from American Express Global Business Travel, Festive Road, and Spotnana discussed these current and future trends in the sector. Steve Singh, executive chairman and CEO of Spotnana, highlighted three big shifts coming in the next five years: how travelers search, how content is distributed and how trips are serviced in light of agentic AI developments. Read More
11/21/2025
AKA Foods secures $17.2M seed funding to launch world’s first secure AI system for food innovation
AKA Foods has secured $17.2M in seed funding to launch AKA Studio, a secure AI platform transforming food product formulation. By combining sensory data, R&D insights and intelligent AI assistants, the system accelerates innovation cycles, supports clean-label reformulation, and helps food companies bring healthier, more sustainable products to market faster. Read More
11/26/2025
Danish FoodTech startup Noahs secures $2.2M to scale its digital retail-food platform
Noahs, Copenhagen-based FoodTech company which transforms the service stations, supermarkets, and travel hubs into modern food destinations, has raised €1.9M ($2.2M) in post-Seed funding at a €6.5M ($7.56M) pre-money valuation – with a Series A expected in 2026. Our strategy is to be present in 10,000 locations by 2030 and become the backbone of a new digital economy by 2040. With the recent investment injection Noahs will accelerate its move from concept to category leader, powered by partners who understand that the future of retail food is digital, modular and global,” shares Daniel Baven, CEO & co-founder of Noahs. Read More
12/08/2025
Tracktile bags $1.25M in funding round led by BDC Seed Venture Fund and Island Capital Partners
Canadian AI software company Tracktile has announced a $1.25M seed investment as it looks to redefine how F&B manufacturing teams interact with software. The company’s AI Operating System acts as a collaborative partner, automating data collection and providing predictive, real-time insights that aim to elevate human decision-making. Tracktile enables F&B manufacturing teams to digitize production runs, trace materials in real-time, and complete audits or recalls with a single click. Read More
11/27/2025
LabelBlind secures $500K seed funding to transform global food regulatory labeling
AI-led digital food labelling SaaS solution company LabelBlind Solutions Pvt Ltd announced that it had successfully raised $500K in seed funding. This significant milestone marks a validation of the company’s innovative approach to transforming food regulatory labelling compliance from a manual burden into a competitive advantage for food companies across India and globally. Read More
11/24/2025
OpenTable partners with VOICEplug AI for restaurant reservation automation
OpenTable, a global restaurant technology platform, and VOICEplug AI announced a strategic integration that will automate phone-based restaurant reservations across 20 countries. This move further strengthens the digital offerings of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG), OpenTable’s parent company, which boasts impressive gross profit margins of 87% and continues to expand its $153.7B market cap business. The partnership will enable restaurants using both platforms to manage table reservations, group bookings, and private-event inquiries through voice AI technology in regional languages. Read More
11/28/2025
Waayu Launches Waayu Suite, a Unified Digital Ordering and Restaurant Management Platform
Waayu has launched the Waayu Suite, a unified digital platform that streamlines restaurant operations with QR-based ordering, automated billing, real-time menu updates, and customer insights.Waayu has launched the Waayu Suite, a unified digital ordering and restaurant management platform designed to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance customer experience across restaurants, cafés, and QSRs. The Suite brings QR-based ordering, the Waayu Ezee Menu, automated billing, real-time menu controls and customer insights into one integrated system. Read More
12/03/2025
White Castle debuts burger kiosk at Boston Logan Airport
The automated kiosk gives the chain, which has long embraced new technologies, a foothold in New England and a chance to build brand awareness. White Castle has deployed an automated slider kiosk at Boston Logan International Airport, the company said in an emailed press release. The automated airport unit was developed in partnership with Just Baked, a food kiosk company, and Evolvending, a vending machine company that works with restaurant brands like California Pizza Kitchen and The Cheesecake Factory, according to its website. Read More
11/21/2025
Food-Tech Startup Launches to Boost Restaurant Discovery with AI Platform
A startup launched in Vancouver this month to boost the restaurant industry with AI technology. Following a beta run in B.C., Umamii currently operates locally and in the Greater Toronto Area. The food discovery community and restaurant curation platform is built for people who love dining out, according to a statement from the upstart. Umamii’s platform aims to help users find restaurants they’ll actually love based on personal preferences and credible sources, says CEO Craig Ryomoto. Read More
12/01/2025
How a data and tech strategy fueled DoorDash’s rise
DoorDash controls roughly 60% of the U.S. food-delivery market—more than twice the share of its closest rival, Uber Eats. A new Fortune feature by tech correspondent Jason Del Rey, “How DoorDash became a $85B behemoth and won the delivery wars,” offers a deep dive into the company. DoorDash is pursuing expansion both into new retail categories and into additional geographies. Xu showed Del Rey how the company’s in-house-built mapping technology advises Dashers on everything from the optimal place to park near a customer’s door to the specific entrance they should use in a large corporate building. DoorDash leaders believe the data adds up to meaningful advantages in the delivery-app wars. Read More
12/02/2025
Restaurant Analytics: How Data-Driven Decisions Help Restaurants Succeed
The most successful restaurants today aren’t just selling food; they are selling experiences through robust private dining and event programs. And the secret ingredient to scaling those high-margin events? Restaurant analytics. As we move through 2025, technology and data analytics have become the “secret sauce” for operational efficiency. Whether you run a single location or a multi-unit restaurant group, understanding your event numbers is the key to unlocking growth. Read More
12/01/2025
Market research meets reality: How verified spend data is transforming restaurant decision-making
Your dashboards say sales are stable. Your brand tracker shows consistent awareness. Your surveys confirm loyal guests. And yet, a competitor just took your share – but you won’t see it until it’s too late (likely next quarter). A leading U.S. quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain wanted to understand how guests were engaging across in-store, mobile ordering, and delivery apps. On the surface, overall sales were growing steadily, and drive-thru throughput (which was once a major competitive advantage) remained strong – but mobile adoption lagged targets. Read More
11/24/2025
Robots and Drones Delivery: Transforming Quick Commerce
This seismic shift in consumer expectations has given birth to quick commerce, with drones and robots ready to take center stage. From the silent hum of delivery drones darting across the sky to the steady trundle of robots on our sidewalks, the delivery landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. These aren’t scenes from a science fiction movie anymore. They’re glimpses of an impending reality, set to redefine the concept of doorstep delivery. This guide zeroes in on how delivery drones are reshaping the quick commerce landscape. Read More
11/24/2025
Turn Loyalty into a Tech-powered Marketing Engine
Loyalty programs are a staple of the restaurant industry, rewarding guests for their repeat business and building brand affinity. With the right technology, a loyalty program can become a powerful marketing platform that drives personalization, engagement, and growth via data collection. Use your integrated data to connect the dots. When your loyalty program connects seamlessly with your point-of-sale, online ordering, reservation, and CRM systems, you’ll have a complete view of your customers. Read More
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