Cloud-based Hospitality SaaS Solutions Startup Raises $1.2M From Accel Partners & Others

HMS Infotech Pvt Ltd, a technology startup offering Cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions for small and mid-sized hospitality industry, has raised $1.2 million (Rs 6 crore) in a funding round led by venture capital firm Accel Partners. Blume Ventures and Mumbai Angels also took part in the round.

Delhi-headquartered HMS Infotech was launched in 2008 by Prabhash Bhatnagar (executive chairman) and Aditya Sanghi (CEO). The company's flagship Hotelogix is a Cloud-based property management system (PMS) based on the SaaS model and offers a unified approach to meet various functions like front-desk operations, housekeeping, restaurant operations and so on. It is targeted at budget and mid-market hotels and hotel chains, motels, resorts, boutique hotels, service apartments, bed-and-breakfasts and hostels.

"The small and mid-sized hotel properties face the same operational challenges as faced by larger, multi-starred hotels; only the scales of operation are different. With simplistic approach to solving this complex problem, creating a hotel and running its operations on Hotelogix is as simple as creating an e-mail account online," said Bhatnagar, founder of the company. Bhatnagar has also incubated BlueApple Technologies Pvt Ltd, a company that provides end-to-end Web design and development solutions to enhance organisational processes. He holds a B.Tech degree from Jamia Millia Islamia University.

"We will use the funds to gain further foothold in the global market. We already have customers in 40-plus countries and will now focus on making inroads in the North and South American markets," said Sanghi. He is a computer science graduate from Nagpur university and has earlier worked at ABO Software Pvt Ltd, where he was director and stakeholder and Envizon, a software company currently managed by his wife.

Asked why the VC firm chose to invest in Hotelogix, Shekhar Kirani, Partner at Accel Partners, said, "We are very excited about the team, their product and the market. With more than 16 million hotel rooms in the world and most of them likely to upgrade to a Cloud-based hotel management platform soon, Hotelogix is perfectly positioned for this market."

Accel Partners has been making a lot of bets on SaaS and Cloud-related companies in India. Only last week, it invested $2.8 million in Bangalore-based Cloud services company Enterprise Nube Services Pvt Ltd. In another such deal, the VC firm put in $1 million in SaaS-based social customer support startup Freshdesk.

Knowcross Solutions is another technology company, incidentally the first investment of Indian Angel Network, which develops and markets next-generation technology solutions for the global hospitality industry. The Gurgaon-based company's flagship is TRITON, a guest service management system. But unlike Hotelogix which focuses on the small and mid-sized hospitality segment, Knowcross boasts of clients like Kempinski, Hyatt, Oberoi, Sofitel, Raffles, Swissôtel, Shangri-La and Radisson.