Profitize Raises $1.5M for AI Hospitality Finance

Jan de Vries · 2026-05-05

profitize, a startup based in South Tyrol, Italy, just closed a $1.5 million Seed round. They build an AI-powered financial planning platform specifically for hotels and restaurants. The goal? To help hospitality businesses finally make sense of their data in real time. This funding will let them expand into new European markets and keep improving their tech. The round was led by Alpine Fund (Redstone and Euregio+) and the Austrian aws Gruendungsfonds, with help from industry angels. ### Why the Hospitality Industry Needs This Hotels are drowning in data. Occupancy numbers live in the PMS system. Costs sit with the tax advisor. Staff schedules are in one tool, and energy bills are with a utility company. Getting a full financial picture often takes weeks, if it ever happens at all. "The hospitality industry works with enormous volumes of data, but often without the means to turn that data into informed decisions," said Simon Falkensteiner, co-founder and Managing Director of profitize. "With RateBoard, we optimised the revenue side. With profitize, we're now tackling costs - because in the end, what matters is what's left at the bottom of the P&L." Falkensteiner knows this space well. He founded RateBoard, a revenue management system, back in 2015 and sold it to the Italian Zucchetti Group in 2020. Now, with profitize, he's back with a new angle. ### How profitize Works The platform pulls data from all those different sources - PMS, POS, accounting, HR, banking, energy providers - and brings it into one dashboard. You get real-time analytics, forecasts, automated reports, and AI-driven recommendations. It helps hotels, hotel groups, and food and beverage businesses manage their finances with precision. Here's a quick look at what it covers: - Budgeting and forecasting - Cashflow analysis - Labour productivity tracking - AI-based cost recommendations ### Real Results from a Real Hotel profitize shared a concrete example. A 40-room leisure hotel in South Tyrol used the platform and cut its labour costs by 10%. No service quality drop. No layoffs. Just smarter scheduling based on occupancy forecasts. "The lever was not a headcount reduction but more precise scheduling," the company said. That's a big deal in an industry where labour costs are rising and energy prices stay high. Hotels can't just keep raising rates anymore, so they need to find savings elsewhere. ### What's Next for profitize The company says about 150 hotels and food and beverage businesses across Europe already use the platform. Both independent hotels and multi-property groups are on board. Ben Scheidt, Partner at Redstone, explained why they invested: "We have been watching profitize for some time and are glad to be on board now. The team is strongly networked in the hospitality sector and knows the genuine pain points of its customers. Together we will internationalise and strengthen the model on the AI side." profitize plans to use the funding for: - Technological development, including anonymised industry benchmarking and expanded productivity analytics - Expansion into Italy, Austria, and other European markets - Growing their technology and customer success teams ### The Bigger Picture Hotels are under pressure. Labour costs are climbing, energy is expensive, and there's less room to hike rates. Many properties still rely on fragmented data and delayed reports. profitize is tackling that head-on by giving operators a real-time view of their finances. For U.S. readers, it's worth noting that the same challenges exist here. Independent hotels and small chains often struggle with the same data fragmentation. While profitize is focused on Europe right now, the model could easily apply stateside. If you're in the hospitality industry and tired of waiting weeks for a clear financial picture, profitize might be worth a look. They're proving that AI can help hotels save money without cutting corners.