China's Shiji acquires VC-backed analytics start-up
Beijing Shiji Information Technology, a big data services provider for hotels, has acquired a majority stake in US-based ReviewPro, a VC-backed company with a suite of complementary products.
The size of the transaction was not disclosed. ReviewPro previously received a EUR3 million round of funding from Active Venture Partners in 2013, following several angel and seed investments. Shiji counts Alibaba Group among its strategic backers. Taobao Software, a technology unit that supports Alibaba’s C2C marketplace Taobao, bought a 15% stake in the business for RMB2.81 billion ($458 million) in 2014.
ReviewPro was founded in 2009 and now works with more than 30,000 hotel clients, including brands such as Meliá Hotels International, The Ascott, and Kempinski Hotels. It develops cloud-based reputation management and guest satisfaction surveys that enable hotels to better understand their operational strengths and weaknesses.
Shiji provides hotel information systems and claims to hold a 60-70% market share in the high-end hotel and retail industries. It is expanding into the catering segment with restaurant information management systems. The company employs about 3,000 people across 30 subsidiaries located in major Chinese cities and overseas markets including Singapore and Germany.
“ReviewPro’s focus on empowering its customers to know their guests better, providing opportunities to make smarter decisions, is very well aligned with Shiji’s mission and we are looking forward to the company making a significant contribution to our growth plans,” Kevin King, COO of Shiji, said in a statement.
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