Dive Brief:
- Canary Technologies raised $80 million to fuel the global expansion of its hospitality-focused artificial intelligence tech, the San Francisco-based technology provider announced Thursday.
- The Series D funding round brings Canary’s valuation to approximately $600 million, according to the company. Brighton Park Capital led the round, with existing investors Insight Partners, F-Prime Capital, Thayer Ventures, Y-Combinator and Commerce Ventures also participating.
- The announcement comes one year after a Series C funding round that netted $50 million, also intended to accelerate Canary’s AI hotel solutions. In a statement, Canary co-founder and CEO Harman Singh Narula said the “hospitality industry is entering a new era powered by AI.”
Dive Insight:
The funding milestone “reflects our team’s continued commitment to building solutions that elevate the industry,” said Canary co-founder and President SJ Sawhney, calling the firm’s AI solutions “deeply inspired by hoteliers’ day-to-day workflows.”
Canary has partnerships with hospitality players including BWH Hotels, Aimbridge Hospitality, Marriott International, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and TUI Hotels & Resorts, supporting more than 20,000 hotels in more than 100 countries, according to the company.
Last June, Singh Narula told Hotel Dive that Canary’s rapid growth was being driven by “significant demand” in hospitality for AI products.
Earlier this year, Canary launched its AI Voice platform, which is designed to answer guest calls and act on what it’s told. “We found virtually all hotels have a use case for this,” Aman Shahi, vice president of product at Canary Technologies, told Hotel Dive in February.
Canary also worked with Wyndham to launch its guest engagement platform, which rolled out last summer. In addition, the company offers digital tipping solutions to partners including Marriott and IHG Hotels & Resorts.
Sabre, which offers AI-powered hotel solutions as well, sold off its hospitality tech unit for $1.1 billion in April.
Also in April, Choice Hotels International Chief Information Officer Brian Kirkland called generative AI “one of the most disruptive and potentially massive impacts to business as a whole.”
