hetras receives multi-million Euro financing from SEP and Target Partners
International growth and release plans on track
Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) and Target Partners have completed a multi-million Euro investment in Hetras GmbH, a developer of hotel management software based in Zell am See, Austria. Hetras will use the funds to further enhance and internationally roll out its SaaS product. Target Partners had already made a significant investment in Hetras in 2009.
Some hotel chains still use reservation technology from the 1960s
The hotel industry has been historically slow to adapt to new technologies. As a result, most hotels today have a collection of poorly integrated applications from multiple vendors: many running on MS-DOS, others on complex client-server clusters and some even running on mainframes.
Hetras is positioned as the first pure Software as a Service (SaaS) player for the international hotel industry. Hetras also consolidates multiple functional areas into a single application. With Hetras, all reservations and guest profiles are managed in a single place instead of scattered among central reservation systems, property management systems, channel managers, hotel websites and guest loyalty databases.
Nearly 100,000 hotel guests have already used Hetras
CitizenM, widely regarded as today's most innovative hotel chain, has been working with Hetras for half a year. The highly automated "budget luxury" chain requires all guests to book online and check in and check out at kiosks in the lobby. Hetras powers these processes -- virtually without human intervention. Hetras also has fixed commitments from an additional 55 properties from various chains in seven different countries.
Three million European hotel rooms represent a market of approximately €1 billion per year for hotel management software. The global market is about four times larger.
First class team
Mark Gracey, Principal at SEP who led the deal, said: "The Hetras system uniquely meets the needs of modern hotels for a cost-effective and highly efficient integrated system which helps them sell rooms and communicate directly with their customers. Hetras is led by a first class management team with a strong track record for developing highly innovative software for the hotel industry. We see significant global growth opportunities for this company." ." Gracey represents SEP on the hetras board.
Hetras management includes founder Michael Heinze, creator of Europe's first hotel channel manager; Keith Gruen, co-founder of Fidelio Software, current market leader in hotel software; and Uli Pillau, Managing Director EAME at IDeaS, market leader in hotel revenue management. "Getting SEP together with Target Partners on board enables us to take a quantum leap forward in our drive towards market and technological leadership" says Gruen, a former venture capitalist himself.
About Hetras
Hetras is a hotel management system comprising a cloud-based property management system, self-check-in app, booking engine, channel manager and state-of-the-art open API that future proofs your hotel's technology. Hetras is a Shiji Group brand and part of the wide-ranging open hotel and travel technology ecosystem. Being part of the Shiji Group strengthens Hetras' integration with Shiji's travel and hospitality technology ecosystem, ranging from point of sale systems which include hardware and software to enterprise payment processing systems.
For more information on Hetras, contact:
[email protected]; +49 89 716718510
Keith Gruen
Advisory Board Member at hetras
+49 89 716718510
