San Diego’s Cloudbeds corrals a fresh $150 million as SoftBank backs yet another local startup

Yet another San Diego startup has notched a big funding round this fall as hospitality software outfit Cloudbeds landed a $150 million investment on Wednesday led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

SoftBank has been at the center of a couple of very large local deals lately. It led a $215 million round for trucking logistics tech startup Flock Freight in October, as well as being the chief backer of activewear brand Vuori in its massive $400 million investment.

Founded in 2012, Cloudbeds supplies a suite of software tools to lodging businesses of all sizes, ranging from boutique hotels to hostels, vacation rentals to hotel groups.

Its bread and butter is smaller — independently owned hotels, which are transitioning from a patchwork of legacy software programs that rely on manual data entry to more robust, automated solutions.

Cloudbeds’ software manages room availability, bookings and other back-office tasks. Founders Adam Harris and Richard Castle tout the software as an asset for underdogs — helping small hotels stay in business in the rapidly evolving travel landscape.

One way that Cloudbeds does that is automatically syncing current booking data across platforms like Airbnb, Expedia and Hotels.com so that hotel owners keep a wide funnel of potential customers coming in without having to update their listings manually.

“Our customers operate a range of hospitality businesses, and what they all have in common is the desire to increase their reservations and deliver a modern, memorable guest experience,” said Harris, Cloudbeds’ chief executive, in a statement on Wednesday. “Our platform makes it easy for them to offer this and democratizes access to the technology and tools that are not normally available to every property.”

Today, the company’s software used by more than 22,000 independent properties across 157 countries.

Cloudbeds will use the money to invest in customer acquisition, expand into new markets and add capabilities to its cloud-based software stack. The company, which employs 570 workers in 40 countries, contends hotels are going to see an uptick in pent-up demand from consumers who were unable to travel during the pandemic — boosting the need for digitalization and automation.

“Lodging businesses worldwide looking to capitalize on the coming travel boom are increasingly turning to Cloudbeds to modernize their technology and guest experience,” said Castle, the startup’s chief operating officer.

Joining SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in this latest funding was Echo Street, Walleye Capital, and returning investors Viking Global Investors, PeakSpan Capital and Counterpart Ventures. Since it was founded nine years ago, Cloudbeds has raised $253 million.

“Cloudbeds has already scaled to more than 20,000 properties worldwide and we look forward to working with the team to support their goal of creating more meaningful travel experiences between owners, operators and their guests,” said Andrew Zloto, investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisers, in a statement.