Kenya’s travel startup, HotelOnline has acquired HotelPlus which is a software provider with clients in about 22 countries. HotelOnline is known for its efforts in the hospitality industry as an e-commerce and digital marketing enabler.
HotelOnline assists hotels to have an online presence with the aim of having more clients. Clients are able to book and reserve hotel rooms. Additionally, the company also offers cloud-based digital tools such as property management systems which offers property management services to property owners.
Eric Muliro, the founder of HotelPlus is going to be the new HotelOnline Chief Technology officer. As part of the deal, he is also going to receive $1.9 million in shares of HotelOnline.
The deal seas HotelOnline to increase its customers and increase additional technological offerings such as advanced payment solutions, AI-driven pricing solutions, and Hotel revenue management.
One of HotelOnline’s investors, Trond Riiber Knudsen had this to say about the deal,” A deal like this helps build a strong African travel-tech player, with a local and continental foothold. This is a key part of what we aim to contribute through our stake in HotelOnline. We see great potential in the new company, and we look forward to the journey from here.”
HotelOnline plans an aggressive expansion all across Africa. It is estimated that it has over 6,000 clients spread across 27 countries.
This new number comes after getting access to HotelPlus’s customer network. Some of the regions it has targeted are the East African region, Nigeria and Senegal.
Recently, HotelOnline has just closed its Series A funding earlier in the year backed by Yanolja which offers cloud-based solutions for accommodation, restaurants, and residences and boasts over 43,000 customers in about 170 regions.
Yanolja’s financial muscle has helped HotelOnline to cut deals and make more investments in its efforts to scale and expand in its current and future target markets. Some of HotelOnline’s investors include Stratel AS and some angel investors from Nigeria.
