SiteMinder, a leading open hotel commerce platform has announced a pre-IPO funding round of over AU$100 million which is comprising both primary and secondary capital.
The round represents the ongoing evolution of SiteMinder’s shareholder base and introduces Fidelity International asset management to SiteMinder’s high quality group of shareholders.
SiteMinder experiencing investor interest
Existing shareholders AustralianSuper, equity funds managed by BlackRock, Ellerston Capital, Pendal Group, and Washington H. Soul Pattinson have also participated in this pre-IPO funding round, deepening their investment in SiteMinder from prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Early investors in SiteMinder including Bailador Technology Investments, Les Szekely of Equity Venture Partners, and TCV remain supporters and shareholders of the company.
SiteMinder’s performance has been resilient amidst the disruption in the global travel industry with the pandemic reflecting the important nature of its technology to hotels across the world.
In the 2021 financial year, SiteMinder sustained revenue of over AU$100 million.
A 40% increase in the number of customers using its payments and other transaction-based products, and experienced revenue decline of less than 6% in constant currency terms.
SiteMinder’s valuation remains at over AU$1 billion based on this latest pre-IPO funding round.
Comments on SiteMinder’s pre-IPO funding round
Sankar Narayan, CEO of SiteMinder, commented, “It is fantastic to welcome Fidelity International as another respected global investor to SiteMinder’s already strong cast of shareholders, whose support of our business has not wavered over the past 18 months.”
“We thank our shareholders for their trust as we perform in an evolving industry backdrop.”
Over the past 18 months, SiteMinder further drove the breadth and relevance of its platform across the various segments of the hotel industry, with initiatives that included:
The growth of its payments programs, Demand Plus and SiteMinder Pay was through the additions of trivago for hotels to process payments from SiteMinder’s platform.
Demand Plus and SiteMinder Pay have experienced exponentially higher adoption rates than any of SiteMinder’s other digital platform offerings in the previous year.
The trial of a new innovative digital acquisition strategy for small hotel businesses and operators, to complement SiteMinder’s existing go-to-market models.
The May 2021 launch of SiteMinder Multi-Property, a product designed to simplify the complexity involved with distribution for hotel chains and groups.
SiteMinder Multi-Property clients report reduced operational inefficiencies from 160 hours to five minutes, while others reported a newfound ability to refocus the time of 10 hotel staff.
The introduction of the SiteMinder Partner Program, which recently signed its 500th member and brought SiteMinder’s total ecosystem to more than 1300 partners worldwide.
The launch of the World Hotel Index for sourcing data from the hotels and booking channels globally allows hotel operators to see trends in their respective countries and regions.
Narayan elaborated, “SiteMinder has consistently maintained high levels of engagement with customers and partners to deliver advanced and strong business performance.”
“This demonstrates SiteMinder’s resilience during these difficult industry conditions.”
“Our continued investment in expanding our product suite puts us in a strong position to benefit from the recovery in travel which we are beginning to see, particularly in the many travel markets where bookings are bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels.”
“After Fidelity International joining SiteMinder’s funding round raise of over AU$100 million it was a time where we could not have foreseen the events ahead,” concluded Narayan.
“What we have seen is SiteMinder show tremendous agility, resilience and innovation, particularly as the needs of their customers and partners have rapidly shifted,” commented George Batsakis, Senior Portfolio Manager from AustralianSuper.
“The unprecedented impacts of the last 18 months have proven the importance of easy-to-use technology platforms for hotels, and we are pleased to be growing our support of SiteMinder as the company continues to provide these much-needed services to support its customers.”
