BeCause, a Copenhagen-headquartered startup, has secured a total of $2.5 million in seed funding, with a recent $600K investment from Curiosity VC. Other investors in the round include Denmark’s Ugly Duckling Ventures, Estonia’s Superangel.io, and others. BeCause focuses on transforming sustainability data management in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries. They provide a platform that automates the collection, analysis, and communication of sustainability efforts for hotels, reducing costs by up to 60% compared to traditional methods. The funding will support BeCause’s growth, including the development of solutions for the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, and enable them to meet the demand from global enterprise customers such as Booking.com, easyJet, Google, Radisson Hotel Group, and others in the travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors.
BeCause focuses on streamlining sustainability data management for the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries. Their platform helps hotels automate the collection, analysis, and reporting of their sustainability efforts, making it easier to qualify for industry certifications and comply with regulations. By reducing the cost and time associated with manual data management, BeCause aims to improve operational efficiency for hotels. The platform also provides insights into sustainable investments and helps travel marketplaces offer more sustainable accommodation options to travelers.
“We reserved some space at the end of our round for a strategic investor to join on equal terms and are thrilled to have found that partner in Curiosity VC. As an AI-focused fund, Curiosity brings key competencies and an international network to the table that will prove invaluable to us as we continue to unfold how artificial intelligence can enable more sustainability-focused operations in hospitality and tourism and across our growing set of solutions,” says BeCause co-founder and CEO Frederik Steensgaard.
Using BeCause, hotels can fully automate the collection, analysis, and communication of their sustainability efforts through a centralized hub, making it much easier for properties to qualify for industry certifications like GreenKey and ensure regulatory compliance based on local frameworks. BeCause dramatically reduces the cost of repetitive and manual tasks by up to 60%, compared to the error-prone processes still widely used within the industry to manage sustainability data. This increase in efficiency and trust significantly improves operational effectiveness.
Hotels also gain critical insights into the types of sustainability investments that might be most valuable for their business and the planet while enabling them to leverage the growing consumer demand for sustainability-focused accommodations. Simultaneously/Finally, the platform allows travel marketplaces, like Booking.com, to get real-time information from green certification labels about a hotel’s sustainability status, which they can use to help travelers and customers make informed choices about their travel plans.
BeCause currently has over 20,000 hotels worldwide streaming sustainability data via its platform and counts more than 50 certifiers and 15 travel booking marketplaces amongst its users.
“What attracted us to BeCause is that they have a clear goal and a true passion for the problem at hand. Their advanced AI capabilities further enhance their ability to drive innovation, address complex challenges, and revolutionize sustainability efforts across sectors. Looking at how far they’ve already come, their execution powers are undeniable,” says Herman Kienhuis, Managing Partner at Curiosity VC. “They have a solid growth strategy in place and are perfectly positioned to solve the needs of stakeholders in hospitality, acting not just as a compliance tool, but as a strategic asset that opens improvement opportunities and aligns the industry with the evolving priorities of a more environmentally aware society.”
The now-completed seed round will enable BeCause to push ahead with its solution developed to support the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a pioneering regulation that strengthens the rules concerning ESG reporting for any company operating in the zone. Funding will also support the company’s accelerated growth rate to meet demand from global enterprise customers, such as Booking.com, easyJet, Google, Radisson Hotel Group, and other global marquee brands across the travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors.
“CSRD will transform how companies report on their sustainability. BeCause has a major role to play in ensuring hotels and tourism companies can seamlessly communicate their impact on people and the environment to their investors, governments, and the world,” Steensgaard adds. “We are grateful to our VC partners for believing in our vision and enabling us to meet the diverse needs of all our clients. Now it’s time to accelerate the future of sustainable tourism and hospitality.”
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