Hotel management platform Canary nabs $80M Series D from YC, Insight Partners

Canary, the hotel guest management platform, announced Thursday the raise of an $80 million Series D in a round led by Brighton Park Capital. 

Harman Singh Narula and childhood friend SJ Sawhney launched the company in 2018 to help hotels digitize and automate guest interactions. The company has raised nearly $180 million in funding to date.

“Running a hotel is increasingly complex,” Singh Narula told TechCrunch. “Guest expectations are constantly evolving, and staffing shortages continue to strain operations. We felt the hotel market was underserved by technology, and that modern solutions could help hoteliers elevate the guest experience, improve profitability, and operate more efficiently.” 

Singh Narula said Canary offers a product suite that encompasses every part of the guest journey, from booking to departure. He said, for example, the company offers services that let hotel guests check in on mobile devices or text the front desk for help. And it’s leaning into AI in serving its customers’ guests through voice, web, and text with an LLM, sometimes offering instant responses.

 “The guest’s user experience is completely customized and branded for each hotel,” he continued. “So, as a guest, you may not know that Canary helped enable your travel experience. With that said, if you’ve stayed in hotels recently, odds are you’ve utilized Canary as we now work with 20,000 hotels across 100-plus countries.” Companies that use Canary include the Rosewood Hotels, Marriott, Best Western, and Wyndham. 

Not that Canary has no competition: Other management software companies in this space include CloudBeds and Revinate, according to Pitchbook. 

Singh Narula described his fundraising efforts as opportunistic.

“While we weren’t actively fundraising, the opportunity emerged to bring in the right partners with strong alignment on vision, values, and where we’re headed,” he said.

Other investors, including YCombinator, Insight Partners, and Fidelity, participated in the round. 

Singh Narula said the capital will be used to help grow the company and hire more employees. 

“We see travel as one of the most powerful ways people connect with the world,” he said. “We believe Canary has an important role to play in making those experiences more personal, more memorable, and more meaningful.”