CAMO Hospitality, a platform that provides hotel-branded room service, has raised $4 million in seed funding to expand across the U.S.
The company said the fresh capital will help it enter additional U.S. markets, support developments across its portfolio and develop its platform.
CAMO manages room service for hotels, overseeing ordering technology, local kitchen fulfillment, delivery logistics and guest support. It then provides hotels with order-level data on guest purchases, order timing and changing behavior throughout their stay.
Per CAMO’s estimates, hotel guests spend roughly $5 billion on restaurant deliveries to U.S. hotel rooms, with spending mostly through third-party delivery platforms.
“Guests never stopped wanting food delivered to their rooms," said Kevin Rohani, CAMO founder and CEO.
“The traditional model just became too expensive and operationally complex for most hotels to support. We built CAMO to give hotels a way to meet that demand without the fixed costs of traditional room service. After years of proving the model, this funding gives us the ability to bring it to hotel brands and management companies at scale.”
Several individual investors participated in the funding round, as well as hotel owners that currently use CAMO.
“Hotels have digitized everything except the transaction that happens inside the room," said investor Anthony Lacavera, chairman of investment and telecommunications company Globalive.
“That is a large market with no incumbent. CAMO is building the infrastructure to own it.”
CAMO said hotels typically earn $1,000 to $5,000 in net monthly profit using its revenue-share model. Over 60 properties in six U.S. market currently use CAMO, with the company noting that it is working with larger brands and management companies “for broader portfolio rollouts.”
“Hotel brands invest millions to make the guest's experience just right,” said Paul Tuscano, a member of CAMO’s advisory board and former Marriott executive.
“To handoff the in-room moment to an outside marketplace kills the guest's relationship with the brand. CAMO keeps the guest experience on brand and inside the hotel ecosystem.”