Med Benmansour is from Casablanca and runs a travel-focused startup.
It’s an elegant coincidence—Casablanca, enshrined in the eponymous 1942 movie, is exactly the sort of travel destination that people dream about as they push their coffee around at their office desks. And since 2017, Benmansour has been building Nuitée, a travel tech infrastructure startup that provides the underlying technology that improves the famously fragmented hotel booking experience. Travel didn’t have a Stripe or Twilio, an API solution that smoothed over a high-friction, highly fragmented sector.
“Every time you have a lot of gatekeepers, you have a fragmented space, you can disrupt that space easily,” said Benmansour, founder and CEO of Nuitée. “Travel was the only industry that did not have a strong API-first company…It was weird, to be honest with you. Okay, this is a massive industry, and yet they don’t have an API-first player.”
Bootstrapped from the beginning, Nuitée—which means “overnight stay” in French—grew to 240 employees and its customers include Hilton, Sabre, and Hopper. Now, the company is doubling down: Nuitée has raised a $48 million Series A, led by Accel, Fortune can exclusively report. Nuitée’s investors and advisors include Booking.com chairman Robert Mylod Jr., HotelTonight founder Sam Shank, Stripe CBO Jeanne DeWitt, and Shopify CRO Bobby Morrison. It’s a massive triumph for a company operating in an industry thrown into chaos by the pandemic.
“COVID was not a bad time for us,” said Benmansour, who earlier in his career worked as a Silicon Valley chip designer for Kawasaki Microelectronics. “It was actually the best time for us to show how resilient the team was. We were small, we had no debt, so we kind of bootstrapped the business. So, our balance sheet was very strong.”
Super.com, a VC-backed consumer fintech platform, has been a customer for four years, and Nuitée helps solve a core problem for them—providing “reliable hotel inventory at the best price,” said Hussein Fazal, Super.com cofounder and CEO. Fazal says Nuitée was a stable partner in the depths of the pandemic.
“Nuitée made a huge difference [during the pandemic],” said Fazal. “Even then, it felt to me from the outside, like a very stable, long-term thinking company.”
Travel isn’t exactly an industry that’s attracted VC backing, because there are lots of barriers to venture-scale returns. It’s a cyclical industry, for one, where one great quarter doesn’t promise another.
“So, you have this cyclical nature, and then lots of times you don’t build a ton of equity value because it’s very transaction-focused,” said Ben Fletcher, Accel partner. “If you want to compete against Expedia or Booking.com, you then have to spend a ton on customer acquisition. That’s really hard.”
But Fletcher—who first met Benmansour at a travel conference in Berlin, where their first meeting stretched into five hours—thinks Nuitée is uniquely equipped to beat the odds. Nuitée is in growth mode, says Benmansour.
“The way we see this happening is like a movie of three acts,” he said. “Act One is basically, let’s say, from zero to $1 billion. That’s where we are today.”
As Fletcher eyeballs it, there’s a lot of value even in that first act.
“If they can get Act One, they just replace aggregators and [hotel room wholesalers] bed banks,” Fletcher told Fortune. “There are aggregators and bed banks today that are worth between $2 billion and $5 billion. So, if they can continue to get a portion of that, this is going to be a $1 billion to $3 billion-valuable company.”
Then, it’s on to Act Two.
“Act Two, let’s say from $1 billion to $10 billion, that’s when we start pissing people off,” said Benmansour. “We start taking some market share…That’s one of the reasons we raised, to make sure if we run into challenges, we have the right backing and network to help us scale.”
Then, there’s Act Three, the “market-making” phase, where Nuitée aims to enable a wide range of businesses and applications to monetize their audiences through travel services. Benmansour likens this to what companies like Stripe and Twilio have done—building the infrastructure to enable a whole ecosystem of developers and businesses.
There’s a long road ahead, of course. But this three-act structure strikingly isn’t just a plan—it’s a road map that ends with Nuitée as a destination in its own right.
ICYMI…I caught up with Databricks CEO and cofounder Ali Ghodsi about the company’s $10 billion mega-round, and my colleague Leo Schwartz had the exclusive on crypto startup BVNK’s $50 million raise.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
- Databricks, a San Francisco-based data AI intelligence platform, is raising $10 billion in Series J funding. Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners, and WCM Investment Management led the round and were joined by ICONIQ Growth, MGX, Sands Capital, Wellington Management, and existing investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
- Hostaway, a Helsinki-based vacation rental platform, raised $365 million in funding. General Atlantic led the round and was joined by existing investor PSG Equity.
- Tyme Group, a Singapore-based digital banking group, raised $250 million in Series D funding. Nubank led the round and was joined by M&G Catalyst Fund and others.
- CleanCapital, a New York City-based clean energy company, raised $145 million in funding from Manulife Investment Management and others.
- SiteOne Therapeutics, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based pain treatment developer, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Novo Holdings led the round and was joined by OrbiMed, Wellington Management, Mission BioCapital, and others.
- Bureau, a San Francisco-based risk intelligence platform, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Sorenson Capital led the round and was joined by PayPal Ventures, existing investors Commerce Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, Village Global, and others.
- Slip Robotics, an Atlanta-based automated truck-loading robots-as-a-service provider, raised $28 million in Series B funding. DCVC led the round and was joined by existing investors EVE Atlas, Tech Square Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and others.
- Baller League, a London-based 6x6 football league, raised $25 million in Series A funding. EQT Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investor Dreamcraft VC and others.
- Plume, a New York City-based blockchain, raised $20 million in Series A funding from Brevan Howard Digital, Haun Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, and others.
- Anatomy Financial, a San Francisco-based financial operations automation platform for healthcare organizations, raised $19 million in Series A funding. Canapi Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- Engineered Arts, a Falmouth, England-based humanoid robotics developer, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Helium-3 Ventures led the round and was joined by Nicolas Desmarais, Belvoir Investments, ThirtySeven Holdings, Figueira Capita, and others.
- Zingbus, a Gurugram, India-based intercity bus travel platform, raised $9 million in Series A funding. bp Ventures led the round and was joined by others.
- T-robotics, a San Francisco-based robotic programming developer, raised $5.4 million in seed funding. Engine Ventures and Emergent Ventures led the round and were joined by Berkeley Skydeck and Raisewell.
- Loadar, a Belfast, Ireland-based freight procurement and management service, raised $4 million in seed funding. Frontline Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investor Techstart Ventures.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Align Capital Partners acquired ISPN Network Services, a Lenexa, Kan.-based managed IT services provider for broadband fiber and internet operators. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Avance Investment Management and AUA Private Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Tropical Cheese, a Perth Amboy, N.J.-based Hispanic cheese, meat, and other food products company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Harbour Group acquired Senproco, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based pet grooming supplies provider, and Groomer’s Choice, the Sioux Falls, S.D.-based wholesale distribution division of Senproco. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- JANUS Research Group, a portfolio company of CM Equity Partners, acquired the atmospheric and environmental research business of Verisk, a Jersey City, N.J.-based analytics and technology provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- OPSWAT, backed by Brighton Park Capital, acquired Fend, an Arlington, Va.-based data diode and cybersecurity company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Pearce Services, backed by New Mountain Capital, acquired Unified Power, a Terrell, Texas-based power services and equipment provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- PrimeSource Brands, backed by Clearlake Capital Group, acquired CityPost, a Spokane Valley, Wash.-based deck, patio, and loft cable railing systems provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- RELAM, a portfolio company of Paceline Equity Partners, acquired Falcon Equipment, a Surrey, Canada-based truck equipment solutions provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Sonar, backed by Advent International, Permira, and others, agreed to acquire Tidelift, a Boston-based software supply chain security solutions provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Specialty Appliances, a portfolio company of Reynolda Equity Partners, acquired Express Dental Laboratory, a Moore, Okla.-based specialty dental laboratory, and International Dental Arts, a Tulsa-based specialty dental laboratory. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The Stepping Stones Group, backed by Leonard Green & Partners, acquired Constellations Behavioral Services, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based applied behavior analysis provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Xceed Foodservice Group, a portfolio company of San Francisco Equity Partners, acquired a majority stake in Acclaim Foodservice, a Brea, Calif.-based foodservice brokerage company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- Buildforce acquired Ladder, an Atlanta-based construction labor marketplace. Financial terms were not disclosed.