Pakistan’s Roomy raises $1 million for its tech-enabled mid-tier hotel network

Pakistan’s Roomy raises $1 million for its tech-enabled mid-tier hotel network

Islamabad-headquartered hospitality startup Roomy has raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Lakson Venture Capital with the participation of Pakistan-focused Karavan VC and a syndicate of angel investors. The investment was announced at an online startup conference 021 Disrupt earlier today.

Roomy was started in 2018 by Dr. Asad Samar, a former investment banker who previously worked with Goldman Sachs and different other firms in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, to shake things up in the hospitality sector of Pakistan. The leadership team includes Haasin bin Zahid who was previously with Rocket Internet's travel startup Jovago and Abdul Rehman who previously worked at Convo and Telenor.

The startup partners with unbranded hotel owners by helping them renovate their properties and then take them over to offer rooms to customers through its online platform. Roomy takes care of management, operations, and marketing of the property, sharing revenue with the landlords.

Many would think that Roomy is building something similar to Oyo but that's not what it's doing. Oyo does not manage the properties itself. They're managed by the hotel owners with Oyo offering training and different types of resources for the stakeholders including to staff to help them