Exit Summary
In August 2017, Expedia acquired a majority stake in ALICE (aliceplatform.com). Expedia had previously led the company’s Series A round two year prior and was so impressed with the company and their founders that they chose to move forward with an acquisition. This acquisition was consistent with Expedia’s aim of improving the hotel customer experience, as well as improving the operations of its hotel partners.
Overview
ALICE is the leading all-in-one hospitality operations platform that enables hotel staff to do their most impactful work without all the guesswork. Task management, real-time communication, and operational analytics reduce the complexity and chaos of hotel operations providing the transparency and flexibility needed to run efficiently. Founded in 2013, ALICE works with more than 2,500 hotels and tens of thousands of hotel staff across many of the world’s leading brands, including Marriott International, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Graduate Hotels, and Grupo Posadas. ALICE is a Top 10 Best Places to Work in Hotel Tech by Hotel Tech Report in 2021, winner of Best Concierge Software, a Top 10 People's Choice Software and Finalist for its Preventative Maintenance Software, Housekeeping, and Staff Collaboration Tools, at the 2021 HotelTechAwards.
Investment Rationale
We were first introduced to the ALICE team in 2014 and were impressed by the ALICE team and by their vision for how software could transform hotel operations. The ALICE founding team fit our model of investing in talented, balanced teams with a vision for how technology can impact a market. CEO Justin Effron brought vision and business acumen to the table, while Co-Founder and President Alex Shashou had domain expertise, having grown up in a family that managed a chain of hotels. CTO Dmitry Koltunov brought technical ability and ability to build a technology team, combined with an understanding of the business value of the technology ALICE was building.