SaaS Comes to the Hotel Industry: Jurny Raises $9.5M to Expand

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Jurny

Most hotels still make you wait at the front desk to check in, receive your key card and confirm your payment by verifying with an ID. Los Angeles-based hospitality startup Jurny wants to make that process faster and easier -- for both the traveler and hotel .


"The idea of Jurny was to really consolidate this very fragmented space into a one-stop solution from both the guest standpoint and the operator's standpoint, because it's fragmented from both sides," Jurny CEO and co-founder Luca Zambello said, adding he sees the hospitality industry as one of the last to automate.

The startup provides software and services to hotel and short-term rental operators in an effort to streamline their operations and make guest service available from a single dashboard. Travelers can do everything from change the temperature in their room to unlock their door from their app.

Hotel and rental operators -- many of whom were hard hit by the pandemic -- can automate pricing, cleaning services and monitoring systems from Jurny's dashboard.

On Monday, the startup announced it raised $9.5 million in funding, led by the Santa Monica venture firm Mucker Capital, in addition to Okapi Venture Capital and SaaS Ventures.

Jurny CEO Luca Zambello

Jurny CEO Luca Zambello

Zambello said he created the company because he wanted to provide travelers with an "Uber type of experience." It's currently available only in Apple's App Store and Google Play.

The 33-year-old Zambello is regarded as one of the early pioneers of Airbnb's platform, building a house-renting business on the app. He said the experience helped him see the need for a more streamlined, on-demand hospitality service that could make staying in hotels easier for guests and operators.

Jurny works on a revenue-share model. The company receives a percentage of the hotel's earnings, based on the package an operator chooses and the services it needs.

Zambello said the company will use the new funds to expand, develop more features and make integration easier for independent property owners and hotels.

So far, the app hosts New York City's Blue Moon Hotel, Mexico's Casa De La O and Nashville's 121 Hotel, among others.

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L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.

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Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

LA Tech Week: Six LA-Based Greentech Startups to Know
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LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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LeaseLock, a lease insurance and financial technology provider for the rental housing industry named Janine Steiner Jovanovic as chief executive officer. Prior to this role, Steiner Jovanovic served as the former EVP of Asset Optimization at RealPage.

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Biotechnology company Visgenx appointed William Pedranti, J.D. as chief executive officer. Before joining, Mr. Pedranti was a partner with PENG Life Science Ventures.

Pressed Juicery, the leading cold-pressed juice and functional wellness brand welcomed Justin Nedelman as chief executive officer. His prior roles include chief real estate officer of FAT Brands Inc. and co-founder of Eureka! Restaurant Group.

Michael G. Vicari joined liquid biopsy company Nucleix as chief commercial officer. Vicari served as senior vice president of Sales at GRAIL, Inc.

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