 "An attendant holds a trolley loaded with the luggage of a guest at the reception area of a hotel in Ahmedabad May 5, 2012. Photo: Reuters")
RedDoorz, an asset-light budget accommodation brand, owned and operated by Singapore-based technology startup Commeasure, has raised a pre-Series-A funding from Silicon Valley-based venture capital (VC) seed fund and startup accelerator, 500 Startups.
The new funding complements RedDoorz's previous pre-Series-A fund-raising from Jungle Ventures, a Singapore based venture firm that invests and helps build technology category leaders in Asia.
Founded by Amit Saberwal and Kunwar Asheesh Saxena in July 2014, Commeasure currently works with over 500 hotels across India and Southeast Asia.
RedDoorz has entered the Indonesian market three months ago and has already signed on over 200 budget hotels as customers. With the new funding from 500 Startups, it will intensify its outreach in Indonesia, as it in parallel introduces its service offering in other prominent tourist and business hubs across Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
“We are confident that with their (500 Startups) support, we will be able to rapidly expand the RedDoorz offering across a market that is ripe for transformation,” Amit Saberwal, founder and chief executive officer of RedDoorz, said in a statement on Wednesday.
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The Southeast Asia travel market is currently pegged at $60.6 billion. Its prominent tourism and business hubs include Thailand, Bali, Singapore, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.
During many periods in the year, the demand for accommodation far exceeds supply in the region. A large number of properties are offline. Further, the market is highly fragmented with low adoption of online distribution technology. Hotel owners are unable to realise the full monetary potential of their assets and have to make do with lower average daily rates, according to RedDoorz.
“The hotel industry globally is going through a lot of change and we are glad to be working with RedDoorz to lead part of this change in a market like Indonesia,” said Khailee Ng, managing partner at 500 Startups.
