Fresh from a seven-figure round of funding, Rateboard is seeking to speed up its expansion into further European markets as well as invest in product development.

Funding for the Vienna-based business comes from aws Gründerfonds while Next Floor and two business angels also participated.

The investment comes on top of €500,000 in seed funding just over a year ago.

Rateboard has developed software for hotels to help them offer the right price to the right customer. It draws from multiple sources of data as well as factors such as weather, local events and competitor pricing to determine rates.

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What problem does your business solve?

Rateboard offers an easy-to-use, cloud-based revenue management software solution for leisure hotels, as well as for campsites. There is a huge potential increasing the profitability of this sector with mostly still seasonal price lists.

Names of founders, their management roles, and number of full-time paid staff?

Simon Falkensteiner, co-founder and managing director and Matthias Trenkwalder, co-founder and managing director. Offices in Innsbruck and Vienna with 15 team members.

Funding arrangements?

Under the leadership of the aws Gründerfonds, leading entrepreneurs from the tourism industry invested in RateBoard. The co-investors include Next Floor GmbH and the two business angels Gregor Hoch and Otmar Michaeler. The financing will accelerate expansion into other European markets and drive product development forward.

Revenue model?

Yearly affordable license fees

Why do you think the pain point you’re solving is painful enough that customers are willing to pay for your solution?

Leisure tourism has changed dramatically in recent years, with increasingly shorter length of stay and dynamically booking windows due to online travel agencies. Our average client sees a revenue increase of 10% in the first year.

External validation?

Founders have a leisure tourism background, we already signed famous European chains in the leisure market and now build interfaces to the most important PMS in Europe, as well as international players such as Protel, Fidelio and Opera.

tnooz view:

Rateboard joins the ranks of the swelling numbers of startups that want to help hotels with pricing and revenue management. There are quite a few of these businesses out there now which makes you wonder if some consolidation might be on the cards soon.

That said, there is clearly a need from the hotel industry for help with everything from pricing and revenue management to channel management because as most hoteliers will tell you, what they’re good at is running a hotel.

A common thread running through these startups is data and another question might be whether the most successful will be those that aggregate and analyse that data in the most efficient way.

Now that Rateboard has gained a second tranche of funding, it can hopefully build some momentum and establish its presence in new markets. This isn’t a business for the impatient, you probably have to want to be in it for the long term but it’s an exciting marketing and one that is garnering a lot of attention currently from the investment community.

However, the competition is not just in the shape of other newbies, there is also the likes of Expedia and Booking to content with and the tricks and tools they have bought or developed in-house in recent years.