UK: Traveltech start-up Criton Apps has secured a £5 million funding boost from a private investor.
The company, which offers a self-build guest app service to hotels and serviced apartments, was launched last year with personal funds and a Scottish Enterprise grant.
Criton‘s software moves all guest-facing information on to a mobile app, which combines destination guides, guest and property management information. Deals with affiliate technology companies, Loop and Bubbl, also mean that the Criton app’s functionality includes geo-fencing, or location based offers and promotions, and in-stay or in-app messaging.
Its client list includes The Knight Residence serviced apartments in Edinburgh, as well as hotels and travel destinations in America, Australia, Portugal and Germany.
The new investment will allow Criton to boost staff numbers to more than 30 in two years with sales bases planned for London and the Middle East scheduled to open early in 2018.
Julie Grieve, founder and CEO of Criton Apps, said: “We have achieved a lot in the first 12 months, both in customer sign-ups and awareness. Our app-builder offers independent hotels a guest facing technology which rivals anything offered by chains such as Hilton and Marriott and we are making an impact. This is a sector, however, where it is important to move fast and this investment will allow us to take Criton to the next level with more staff and an international sales team. We believe the future of travel and hospitality tech is on the guest’s own device, where they can use their own phone or tablet to check-in, access their room and operate in-room appliances using the power of the Internet of Things. In-room devices are used briefly, if at all, during the guest stay because they want to use their own device both in room and when out and about. What’s more, our technology is available to independent hotels and small chains making it possible for them to offer guest facing technology that is world class. We now have the foundations and the funds in place to meet our growth ambitions. It is an exciting time.”
Criton currently operates out of the UK’s largest technology incubator, CodeBase in Edinburgh and The Traveltech Lab in Lodnon and has six members of staff.
Grieve added: “Criton literally provides the who, what, where, when and how about a place to stay via the touch of a screen, anyway, anytime on a white labelled app. It is a means to enhance customer service and experience, easy to update and can be translated into any language to suit international visitors. As the hospitality sector looks to digitise the guest offering, we believe Criton will help operators do this without paying for expensive technology that does not give them full control over the content.”</p
