Image credits:Viqal
Viqal, a Utrecht-based deep-tech startup, announced on Monday that it has secured €500K in a pre-seed round of funding from Rabobank, Holland Startup, and two angel investors.
Viqal says the capital will help it to expand its team, scale its smart sensor network, and significantly increase data gathering from physical spaces.
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Bram Haenraets, co-founder & CEO of Viqal, says, “Hospitality is a good example of an industry seeing a cultural change after turbulent times in which data and analytics are leveraged to achieve operational excellence.”
“This investment will help us to expand our team, scale our smart sensor network and significantly increase data gathering from physical spaces,” he adds.
There is a cultural shift in the hospitality industry in which data and analytics are leveraged to achieve operational excellence. Gathering data from the physical spaces will enable organisations to activate staff, improve the guest experience and increase guest loyalty. And that’s what Viqal is doing.
Viqal: What you need to know
Founded by Bram Haenraets, Daniel Formolo and Marcelo Resmini, Viqal aims to address the challenge of staff shortages and unfair online reviews.
The Dutch company provides hospitality organisations with real-time, effortless, and privacy-friendly customer sentiment data. This is powered by acoustic smart sensors and AI.
It will help organisations to analyse how people experience their visit in real-time and activate existing staff on the spot to better attend to guests.
The company is on a mission to connect the physical and digital world through 1M smart sensors by 2030, so cities can be smarter, safer, and more inclusive.
Presently, Viqal’s solution is live at data-driven hospitality organisations, including Millennium Hotels & Resorts in Singapore and Van der Valk in Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
Robbert-Jan Hanse, CEO of Holland Startup, says, “While other investors abandoned the hospitality industry, due to the covid pandemic, we at Holland Startup were bullish on this opportunity.”
He adds, “Just like Cornelis de Houtman first visited Lisbon in the 16th century to gather information about the Portuguese trade route to the East Indies, Bram sailed the turbulent waters of the covid pandemic, anticipating hard lockdowns. He navigated Viqal time after time into safer waters, from Amsterdam to Lisbon to Singapore.”
He concludes, “Bram and his team showed resilience, determination, and grid. We are very happy for the team as they received additional capital from the likes of Rabobank. Well deserved!”
Rabobank Startup & Scaleup Team says, “It is a great proposition from Rabobank to finance startups in an early phase and to support their growth, Viqal is the perfect candidate to offer the Innovation Loan”.
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