ZUZU Hospitality, a Singapore startup, has raised US$5.9 million in a Series B extension funding round. The investment came from long-time supporter Wavemaker Growth along with Velocity Ventures and other existing investors.
The Singapore startup, founded in 2017 by former Expedia executive Vikram Malhi, is putting itself at the center of the AI wave in hospitality. It believes these new tools will help it grow much faster and attract customers it couldn’t reach before.
The company is focusing on the use of AI in the hospitality industry, aiming to grow faster and reach hotels and customers that were previously out of its reach.
“The fact that existing investors have come in gives us confidence that they believe in us at this pivotal moment when technology can be our rocket booster,” said Malhi, whose company’s mantra is “Empowering Independent Hotels”.
Malhi’s formative years at Hotels.com shaped his approach to product building. “Hotels.com was one of the first, maybe the first, online travel companies that brought in commercial people to head product, to bring in a customer-first approach to product building.
“We would sit with users, understand their behaviours, and design around real needs. “The biggest lesson was – don’t build from what you want as a technologist. Build from what the user actually needs,” Malhi recalled.
That philosophy underpins ZUZU today: creating tools that empower small, independent hotels and optimize their OTA distribution channels.
“Chains have scale, but independents have soul,” Malhi said. “Our mission is to scale that soul with technology.”
With AI, the company can now try out forward-deployment with its clients. “We’re working closely with them to understand their exact needs and then building solutions around those. Thanks to AI, what used to take months can now be done in just a few days.”
“This allows us in a way to personalise product building, which is powerful for a small company like ours. It makes us more nimble and agile.”
With the new funding, ZUZU plans to introduce more AI-powered tools into hotel operations, covering areas such as revenue management, upselling, cross-selling, and other key areas of focus. The company has over 200 employees, but AI is already changing how work gets done, cutting down the need for large teams of specialists.
Malhi is as wide-eyed about AI as he is about the notion of flight. “I’ve flown so many times but everytime I fly, I am filled with wonder at the miracle of flying – how this giant metal tube stays in the air and takes all these people places.”
For Malhi, ZUZU’s vision remains constant: providing independent hotels with the kind of tools once reserved for Marriott or Hilton. “Independents are bogged down with operations, but their hospitality DNA is unique. If AI can lift the burden, they can finally scale their soul,” he said.
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