Travel-focused app targeting global growth with £5m sum
● Funding will see jobs grow to more than 30 from six ● Follows recent additions to startup’s customer base
A “traveltech” start-up offering a self-build guest app service to hotels and serviced apartments has secured investment of £5 million as it targets overseas growth.
Criton Apps operates out of Codebase in Edinburgh, and was set up just under a year ago with personal funds and a Scottish Enterprise grant.
The latest funding has come from an anonymous private investor and will allow Criton to boost staff numbers to more than 30 in two years, from six currently, with sales bases planned for London and the Middle East set to open early next year. It is eyeing a market with a growing number of suitable locations, currently sitting at an estimated four million globally.
The investment also comes after a number of high-profile customer wins, adding Arran’s Auchrannie Resort and Crieff Hydro over the summer. They join Edinburgh luxury hotel The Chester Residence and top-ranked serviced apartments, The Knight Residence, with the client roster also including hotels and travel destinations in America, Australia, Portugal and Germany.
Julie Grieve, founder and chief executive of Criton Apps, said: “We have achieved a lot in the first 12 months, both in customer sign-ups and awareness. Our app-builder offers independent hotels a guest-facing technology, which rivals anything offered by chains such as Hilton and Marriott, and we are making an impact.
“This is a sector, however, where it is important to move fast, and this investment will allow us to take Criton to the next level with more staff and an international sales team.
“We believe the future of travel and hospitality tech is on the guest’s own device, where they can use their own phone or tablet to check in, access their room and operate in-room appliances using the power of the Internet of Things.
“In-room devices are used briefly, if at all, during the guest stay because they want to use their own device both in room and when out and about.
“What’s more, our technology is available to independent hotels and small chains… We now have the foundations and the funds in place to meet our growth ambitions. It is an exciting time.”
Criton has also struck deals with affiliate tech companies Loop and Bubbl. Grieve added: “As the hospitality sector looks to digitise the guest offering, we believe Criton will help operators do this without paying for expensive technology that does not give them full control over the content.” Merlin Entertainments is to invest £265 million in opening a Legoland theme park in New York as it presses ahead with global expansion. The Uk-based owner of Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers said that the new Legoland will open in 2020 and be located in Goshen, Orange County, 60 miles north-west of the Big Apple. The resort will create 1,000 jobs, in addition to 800 construction jobs. Merlin recently revealed a “difficult” summer for its London attractions.