EDITOR'S COMMENT
• The first five months of 2024 have been characterised by an acceleration in merger and acquisition [M&A] activity but the news that digital guest welcome book solution Touch Stay has been sold to Czech firm itrinity will come as quite a shock to the industry, given the personal and financial investment by its co-founders to date and the company's steady upward progression.
Fresh off the back of a Shortyz accolade in the first-ever 'Team of the Year' category, Touch Stay was launched back in 2014 by Andy McNulty and Joe Jones. In the ten years since then, the company has grown to 18 employees around the world and achieved a £4 million valuation upon securing seed funding in early 2022, after having been a bootstrapped operation in its first five years of trading.
While McNulty and Jones said that “the great product and the rockstar team remain the same” in a candid letter to Touch Stay customers, it is a sign of things to come that that M&A activity is not slowing down and that new players have their eyes on this sector.
By all accounts, the acquisition of Touch Stay was a relatively quick transaction, due in part to the company's "profitability, track record and team". All of these factors will make any travel or short-term rental company an attractive proposition for acquisition and it marks itrinity's sixth purchase to date - we wait to see who the next major entrant into this vertical will be.
Congratulations to Andy, Joe and the Touch Stay team on the acquisition!
• Our next webinar is tomorrow [21 May - 4pm BST] on 'Exploring alternative sources of funding'. Don't miss the insights of Andrew Martyn [Your.Rentals], Alex Limpert [GuestReady], Yasha Estraikh [Piper] and Eduardo Cannizzo [Seedrs] - sign up now at this link.
Scroll down for the latest industry news.
• Please click here if you have a story you want us to tell the industry, or would like to be considered for a feature, podcast or webinar.
For more information and sponsorship / creative solutions advice, contact us at jordan@internationalhospitality.media.
