Visit Guide Inc. started a round of funding for a patent by Shehab Ahmed — CEO of Visit Guide — and Pedro Nancez with a 25% valuation reduction fro new investors this week.
Nancez holds a Ph.D. specialising in Airbnb algorithms from USC, Spain.
Ahmed said that the round aims to fund a patent on ways to classify hotels using data analysis and machine learning techniques.
The CEO told Daily News Egypt (DNE) that the company’s valuation was reduced by 25% for a 14-day period of the financing round in order to encourage investors, as the company was valued at $9m instead of $12m.
The crowdfunding round aims to raise $200,000 in funding with a minimum of $100 for each investor, with investors expected to receive an annual distribution of the profits that the company will achieve.
Furthermore, Ahmed revealed that the company received investment offers from a number of specialised investment funds, but no decision has been taken in that regard so far.
Visit Guide believes it can transform the global travel market, Ahmed says, adding that “17 companies dominate the hotel market globally, and there are more than 60,000 offline travel agents that account for only 1% of the market share.”
The services of Visit Guide cater to more than 181,000 hotels around the world, implementing rental and holiday reservations in three years without the need for any capital fund. The company also achieved revenues of about $216,000 from selling Accor hotel reservations.
Additionally, the company was recently awarded an accelerator grant from Madeira Start-ups — a travel tech accelerator.
