Japanese hospitality proptech startup Wayfarer has raised $1 million toward its mission to become the "Amazon Web Services of hotels."
Persistence Capital led the round, with participation from Arculli & Associates, Jyuban and angel investors, bringing Wayfarer’s total funding to $2.1 million.
Founded in 2019, Wayfarer was created to modernize hotel management in Japan. When the pandemic hit, the company partnered with property owners and investors dealing with vacant buildings and underperforming management companies.
According to the company, under Wayfarer’s management, property owners see an increased net cash flows of as much as 70%.
Wayfarer has 200 units operated and contracted in Japan with properties under management worth $50 million. It takes a management fee from property owners and is generating more than $3 million in annualized recurring revenue.
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Down the line, Wayfarer will also sign leases, giving property owners income stability and more flexible bank financing options.
The company says it partners directly with property funds, listed property companies, brokerages and hotel advisories to source and launch new products. Its AWS for hotels ambitions include “creating software solutions and tools with instant product-market fit through their own hotel operations until the software platform is proven, battle-tested and scalable enough to replace some of the disjointed on-premise technologies many hotels still use.”
With the fresh funding, Wayfarer plans to scale room count, refine design and branding and build its development team.