The unlikely origin of a $2.5 billion hospitality unicorn: a bored teenager working the night shift at his family business
Richard Valtr founded Mews, a hospitality technology company, after working night shifts at his family's hotel. Frustrated with outdated systems, he created a modern solution that has grown to serve over 15,000 properties worldwide. Mews recently achieved a valuation of $2.5 billion, marking its status as a unicorn in the industry.
- ▪Richard Valtr started Mews to improve the tedious night audit process he experienced as a teenager working at his family's hotel.
- ▪The company has raised a total of $710 million across 14 funding rounds, with a recent $300 million Series D round.
- ▪Mews is now valued at $2.5 billion and is recognized as one of the most valuable hospitality technology companies globally.
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Richard Valtr built one of the most valuable hospitality technology companies in the world simply because he was a teen who wanted to stop working the night shift.Recommended Video “I always remember being 14 years old on my summer holidays, thinking that this was so unfair,” the Mews founder told Fortune at his company’s Unfold conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday. “My hatred went for the systems.” While his friends were enjoying their summers, a teenage Valtr was working the graveyard shift at his family’s boutique hotel in Prague, hunched over credit card slips at 1 a.m., matching every payment to every guest bill as part of the industry’s dreaded “night audit.” The ritual took roughly two hours, and it had to be done every single night.
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