WeBee, the hotel-guest interaction platform developed by Turkish entrepreneurs, is now worth over TRY 38 million, following an additional investment of TRY 6 million.
WeBee, a market leader in Turkey, aims to strengthen its presence in foreign markets by using its investments to establish overseas offices, with goals to become an industry leader on the global stage.
WeBee received its first round of investments in 2019 from Mustafa Oğuz Akdeniz, a highly-regarded figure in the tourism industry, and Burak Şen, who contributed as an angel investor.
The second round of investment for WeBee was led by DCP (Diffusion Capital Partners) and co-invested by the Technology Innovation Fund under the Development Fund of Turkey. The new investors of the hospitality platform serving more than 160 hotels in 23 countries include Nevzat Aydın, CEO of Yemek Sepeti, the angel investment network Angel Effect; Sinan Özel, an angel investor from Germany; and Sinan Düztaş, an angel investor from England.
WeBee Co-Founders Tansel Voyvodaoğlu and Dr. Özgür Zan“During our WeBee journey that started in 2017, we noticed a gap in the tourism industry that must be addressed and therefore, established an online/contact-free guest interaction platform to serve 360° services,” said WeBee Co-Founders Tansel Voyvodaoğlu and Dr. Özgür Zan.
“Thus, we built a digital bridge between the guest and the hotelier to maximize guest satisfaction. Serving over 23 countries abroad, we have since become the industry leader in Turkey in a short time. This success has also been capped with international awards. With this new investment of TRY 6 million, we aim to join the global ranks by establishing our overseas market while simultaneously strengthening our leading position in Turkey.”
GLOBAL TARGETS
Nevzat Aydın said, “It was the WeBee team which impressed me the most. They took decisive steps to secure a foothold in the tourism sector, even though it had been hit hard by the pandemic. When I come across start-ups with global targets, I can’t help but roll up my sleeves and give them all the support I can. WeBee is on its way to becoming a global success story in this sector.”
Alper Karagöz, when evaluating the investment process on behalf of DCP, said that they think the mobile platform, WeBee, will play an important role in the digital transformation of the tourism industry. Furthermore, they expect the platform, which is now an industry leader in Turkey, to gain a significant amount of momentum with its international growth, both due to its technological infrastructure and robust scalability and its new investment. Karagöz also added that they are delighted to partner with an experienced team that has already proven themselves with many successes in the mobile platform software industry. In addition, they anticipate that the digitalization of the guest experience processes will contribute significantly to achieving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets.
FIRST INVESTMENT
Technology and Innovation Fund officials said, “WeBee is the first investment we have made under our joint investment strategy framework. We believe that WeBee, along with its local success, will achieve great success abroad. It has an experienced team that offers industry-changing solutions to many prestigious hotels across 23 different countries. At the Technology and Innovation Fund, we continue to support new-generation start-ups that represent our country at a local and global scale.”
Gökhan Akar, Chairman of the Board of Angel Effect, said, “We are happy to be a part of the growth journey of WeBee enabled by its successful projects. Its market solutions and rapid growth trends were deciding factors in our decision to invest. We have full confidence in WeBee’s business model and team when it comes to taking part on the global stage.”
