In 2007, online travel agents (OTA’s) were emerging as an essential source of room bookings for hotel operators.
Mike Ford had spent two years as founder of a backpacker accommodation business in Sydney. He experienced first hand the emerging challenge for hotel operators to manage the allocation of their room inventory across multiple OTA’s. He recognised early that as the number of OTA’s exploded, so too would the complexity for hotels to maintain real-time pricing and availability across an ever-increasing number of booking sites.
Mike partnered with software engineer Mike Rogers. The pair set out to address the emerging challenge of “channel management” in the hotel industry. They began building the product from a rental home on Sydney’s northern beaches and launched SiteMinder in 2007.
Like Mike, Les Szekely had direct experience of the shifting hotel distribution landscape. He had invested early in Hotelclub, which had grown to become one of the region’s leading online travel platforms, acquired by Cendant Corporation in 2004.
Les invested in SiteMinder in 2008, becoming the first external shareholder and providing the seed capital for the founders to develop the product and to begin hiring a team.
As the business grew, Les invested further capital over three subsequent funding rounds. SiteMinder completed a $6 million Series-A capital raising in 2012, with Bailador Investment Management serving as lead investor.
In 2014, SiteMinder raised a US$30 million Series-B round from Silicon Valley’s Technology Crossover Ventures, becoming the first Australian company in the TCV portfolio. TCV has increased its stake in the business several time since.
“Les was the first to recognise the potential in Siteminder, back when it was barely more than a concept. Over the subsequent ten years, Les has been at our side as an investor, board member and adviser. His input has been instrumental as we’ve gone about building a truly global business.” Mike Ford, Founder
In November 2018, SiteMinder appointed Sankar Narayan as CEO. Sankar previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Xero. In January 2020 Siteminder announced a substantial capital raising led by Black Rock, which valued the business at over $1.1 billion.
Today SiteMinder is a large global business, powering reservations for 35,000 hotels across 160 countries and transacting approximately US$20 billion in booking revenue per year. Les remains a substantial shareholder and director of the company.
In 2007, online travel agents (OTA’s) were emerging as an essential source of room bookings for hotel operators.
Mike Ford had spent two years as founder of a backpacker accommodation business in Sydney. He experienced first hand the emerging challenge for hotel operators to manage the allocation of their room inventory across multiple OTA’s. He recognised early that as the number of OTA’s exploded, so too would the complexity for hotels to maintain real-time pricing and availability across an ever-increasing number of booking sites.
Mike partnered with software engineer Mike Rogers. The pair set out to address the emerging challenge of “channel management” in the hotel industry. They began building the product from a rental home on Sydney’s northern beaches and launched SiteMinder in 2007.
Like Mike, Les Szekely had direct experience of the shifting hotel distribution landscape. He had invested early in Hotelclub, which had grown to become one of the region’s leading online travel platforms, acquired by Cendant Corporation in 2004.
Les invested in SiteMinder in 2008, becoming the first external shareholder and providing the seed capital for the founders to develop the product and to begin hiring a team.
As the business grew, Les invested further capital over three subsequent funding rounds. SiteMinder completed a $6 million Series-A capital raising in 2012, with Bailador Investment Management serving as lead investor.
In 2014, SiteMinder raised a US$30 million Series-B round from Silicon Valley’s Technology Crossover Ventures, becoming the first Australian company in the TCV portfolio. TCV has increased its stake in the business several time since.
“Les was the first to recognise the potential in Siteminder, back when it was barely more than a concept. Over the subsequent ten years, Les has been at our side as an investor, board member and adviser. His input has been instrumental as we’ve gone about building a truly global business.” Mike Ford, Founder
In November 2018, SiteMinder appointed Sankar Narayan as CEO. Sankar previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Xero. In January 2020 Siteminder announced a substantial capital raising led by Black Rock, which valued the business at over $1.1 billion.
Today SiteMinder is a large global business, powering reservations for 35,000 hotels across 160 countries and transacting approximately US$20 billion in booking revenue per year. Les remains a substantial shareholder and director of the company.