Headquarters: London
CEO: Vivi Cahyadi Himmel
Website: AltoVita
Founding date: 2018
Investment: £2 million
AltoVita’s award-winning technology creates a cloud-based bridge between the highly fragmented property distribution system and Global 2000 companies, SMEs and business travelers, reducing the legacy 48- to 72-hour corporate housing bidding process down to a few minutes. The fully customizable platform provides instant access to a diverse network of one million-plus housing options worldwide, with the ability to sort by desired amenities, pet friendliness, sustainability scores and more.
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Strategic goals for 2023
2023 is going to be a year of huge growth for AltoVita. Our product market fit is the strongest with multinational Fortune 2000 companies. In 2023, we will launch a product-led freemium model for mid-market and SMBs. We currently have 92 clients, and this number will be at 500 with a more diversified client base by the end of 2023. We will also continue to collaborate closely with key corporate clients on new product features, such as the creation of an escalation management dashboard.
Our hospitality network of one million corporate accommodations currently spans 165 countries and 1,553 cities, and we’re working hard to grow this significantly through supplier integrations, with a focus on expanding further into North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific markets. By the end of 2023 we will double our hospitality network to two million units. Plus, we will expand downstream and launch the first extended stay PMS, connecting directly from hospitality and guest experience to empower data intelligence for corporate clients.
Lessons learned since founding
Early in the pandemic we saw an opportunity to grow our business from being a European player to a truly global corporate accommodations company, and we used the recession as an opportunity to change the legacy mindset and promote our cost savings solution. As performance marketing is like a drug with low ROI, we instead found tremendous value in investing in SEO, brand awareness and PR. Also key is to invest in product marketing early and religiously communicate new product features, which has the added benefit of exhausting your competition and making them feel they can’t keep up with you.
For other founders, I recommend getting to a mindset where you can switch to structural profitability and only invest further with concrete KPIs and growth metrics. Capital efficiency and revenue-per-employee are key metrics. When growing the team, know that candidates who negotiate hard on no-cliff and shortvesting options are red flags and they have no intention in building the company long-term.