Denver-based Hotel Engine garners $140 million in funding

Travel technology platform Hotel Engine announced on Tuesday a $140 million Series C investment led by Permira Growth Opportunities II, a fund advised by global private equity firm Permira.

Hotel Engine will use the funding to support ongoing product development, including the launch of flight and rental car bookings to its platform. The new booking options will go live in October, making Hotel Engine an all-in-one solution for business travel.

Alongside the new product release, Hotel Engine will change its name to “Engine” to reflect its expanded focus.

“Hotel bookings will always be in our DNA, but we’re out to transform the entire travel experience,” said Hotel Engine CEO Elia Wallen. “We want to become the engine of business travel. Our new name will reflect that, and with Permira’s latest investment, we’ll be better positioned than ever to turn our ambitions into reality.”

Denver-based Hotel Engine serves business travelers with tech and innovative features like consolidated invoices, coverage for incidentals, 24/7 customer support, whole-company trip insurance and free travel-management software. Hotel Engine touts a contract-free approach with no minimums or agent-assist fees that it says makes adoption easy for businesses of all types and sizes.

The platform connects business travelers to a network of more than 750,000 hotels, 300 airlines and 40 rental car companies. Travel providers are also able to use Hotel Engine’s Partner Hub software platform for free, which enables them to provide special offers to business travelers, manage reservations, create marketing campaigns and benchmark against competitors.

“We are proud to have built a platform that benefits everyone,” Wallen said. “In addition to the value we provide to businesses, we also help hotels raise their visibility and build relationships with business travelers worldwide through our Partner Hub platform.”

Hotel Engine has used only $20 million of outside capital to reach its current $2.1 billion valuation, up from $1.3 billion at its Series B in November of 2021. The company is profitable, experiencing 70% year-over-year revenue growth at scale, and is on track to book over 10 million room nights this year.

Permira Principal Alex Melamud has joined Hotel Engine’s Board of Directors.

“Hotel Engine is a category leader in more ways than one,” he said. “They’ve figured out how to provide the benefits of managed travel without the downsides such as contracts, minimum spend requirements and extra support fees, and they’ve also created a business that appeals to both travelers and suppliers like hotels, airlines and car rental companies. We are confident that Hotel Engine has miles of room to run, and we’re excited to be part of the journey alongside Elia and his team,” commented Melamud.