Portfolio News| November 2021

Lighthouse Raises $80M from Spectrum Equity to Bring Data-Driven Decisions to Hospitality Industry

London, Denver & Singapore - Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight), the global leader in cloud-based hospitality business intelligence, has raised $80 million from Spectrum Equity, a leading growth equity firm focused on internet-enabled software and transformational data companies. Spectrum Equity joins existing Lighthouse investors Eight Roads, F-Prime Capital and Highgate Technology Ventures. This latest investment will support the company in furthering its mission to enable smarter commercial decisions and outputs across the industry as it expands its global footprint.

Lighthouse delivers powerful data and analytics to optimize commercial decision making across the hospitality industry. As the industry rebounds in the wake of the global pandemic, many hospitality operators are embracing new technologies to gain a competitive edge. Over 55,000 hotel properties in 185 countries use Lighthouse’s commercial platform, which includes Market Insight, Rate Insight, Revenue Insight and Parity Insight, to make complex pricing decisions and understand rapidly evolving market, channel and competitor dynamics in real time.

“Prior to the pandemic, the hospitality industry had been open to gradually adopting new technology. Our business experienced significant growth through 2020 despite the industry headwinds, but 2021 has been a breakthrough year for us as the recovery accelerated the pace of technology adoption. We anticipate unprecedented opportunities and growth as the recovery continues,” says Lighthouse CEO Sean Fitzpatrick. “For global chains and independent hotels alike, we have made the use of data simple and intuitive to drive better commercial decisions and provide a real competitive advantage.”

“We are thrilled to add Spectrum Equity as an investor to partner with us in our mission. We feel privileged to have a world-class group of investors supporting our growth strategy,” added Fitzpatrick.

The investment by Spectrum Equity will fuel Lighthouse’s growth in key areas of product innovation, engineering, sales, and global expansion. “We are very excited about the response from our customers to our latest products and innovations,” said Gino Engels, co-founder and CCO. “With this investment we will accelerate our expansion across all regions in 2022 but particularly in the Americas, where we have seen an incredible recovery.”

“We are so grateful to the Lighthouse team, our customers and our partners who have continued to trust and support us through the global crisis,” said Matthias Geeroms, co-founder and CFO. “We strive to be a business with a great culture and strong core values that put our team members and customers first. This investment marks the next milestone on our journey as we continue to build a world-class company to serve the changing needs of the industry.”

“We have a long history of partnering with leading data intelligence and decision support companies,” said Steve LeSieur, Managing Director at Spectrum Equity. “We’re excited to join forces with the entire Lighthouse team as they grow the company and develop new products and tools to meet the demands of an industry that is hungry for new technology.”

As part of the transaction, Steve LeSieur from Spectrum Equity will join the Lighthouse Board of Directors.

About Lighthouse

Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) is widely recognized as the leader in hospitality business intelligence, empowering hoteliers to deliver smarter revenue, distribution and marketing outcomes through its market-leading commercial platform. With live updates, 24/7 support, and highly intuitive and customizable dashboards, Lighthose integrates with industry tools including hotel property management systems, leading RMS solutions and data benchmarking providers. Lighthose’s team of international experts support more than 55,000 properties in 185 countries. For more information, visit mylighthouse.

Content contained in this blog post is not intended to and does not constitute investment advice. Your use of the information in this blog post and materials linked is at your own risk. Spectrum Equity does not make any guarantee or other promise as to any results that may be obtained from using this content. No one should make any investment decision without first consulting his or her own financial advisor and conducting his or her own research and due diligence. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and there is a possibility of loss in connection with an investment in any Spectrum Fund. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Spectrum Equity disclaims any and all liability in the event any information, commentary, analysis, and/or opinions prove to be inaccurate, incomplete or unreliable, or result in any investment or other losses. The specific companies identified above does not represent all of Spectrum’s investments, and no assumptions should be made that any investments identified were or will be profitable.