Hotelverse expands to Portugal

Hotelverse, a Spanish startup that aims to revolutionise the existing online hotel room booking model, has brought its operations to Portugal.

Created in 2021 by Fermín Carmona and Rafael Bova, it has already raised €3.5 million in investment rounds and has plans to launch a Series A round next year.
Both founders were directors at the Iberostar Group and developed the business idea as an internal project to resolve a problem faced by the hotel group and industry in general: the high level of middlemen because of the Internet and the growth of online go-compare websites, reducing the volume of direct sales made by hotels, and reducing the information available for the consumer during the purchasing process.
Hotelverse has solved this problem via the construction of a digital twin of the hotel that hands back the purchasing power to hotel companies and users.
It is the only solution on the market that allows users to book the exact room that they want. It is a new category of technology for hotel bookings and a unique tool for cutting out intermediaries.
Based in Palma de Maiorca, Hotelverse annually employs a team of 45 people. In 2022, in its first year of activity it raised €2 million in two finance rounds. The first (March) to the value of €1 million was supported by the Iberostar Group, the venture capital company Archipelago Next, the Toni Nadal family office, and the Mexican investor Braulio Arsuaga.
The second round in September, also of €1 million, attracted investment from Aurelio Vásquez, Senior Director Asset Management of Hotel Investment Partners (HIP); Raúl González, Chief Executive Officer EMEA of Grupo Barcelo; Sabadell Venture Capital, the venture capital division of Banco Sabadell; and the real estate investment company Stoneweg.