Virdee Raises Millions for Automated Hotel Check-in: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Travel Startup Funding This Week

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at jd@skift.com if you have funding news.

This week, travel startups announced more than $15 million in seed rounds of funding.

>>Virdee, a hotel tech vendor, has closed a seed round of investment, bringing its total raised to date to $9 million.

Silverton Partners led the round. LiveOak Venture Partners, as well as hotel technology investors DJR Advisors also joined.

Austin-based Virdee offers contactless check-in technology as part of an all-in-one guest experience suite of tools.

Automating or replacing check-in has been promised for years. Yet a majority of stays at hotels worldwide continue today require a check-in with a front desk clerk.

A few hurdles remain. One key sticking point has been payment verification to prevent fraud. Another has been an inability to accept all forms of payment.

A third hurdle has been obstacles to integrating with the core property management systems that hotel companies use.

Attempted tech solutions have often faltered due to a lack of completeness. But Virdee said it has foun