Danish AI-powered startup BeCause raises $1.9m to revolutionize sustainability in the travel and tourism industries

BeCause, a Danish startup transforming how the global hospitality, travel and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, has  secured $1.9 million in seed funding. The round, co-led by Denmark's Ugly Duckling Ventures and Estonia's Superangel.io, includes a $708K open tail-end and the $1.9 million for strategic investors to join on equal terms.

Frederik Steensgaard, Co-founder and CEO, BeCause: "We have retained the possibility of adding another investor to this round and hope to find a partner that has experience with high-growth startups in the impact space, particularly those with a background in B2B SaaS models, travel and big data API, to help accelerate our mission even further." 

With a $450K angel investment from earlier this year, BeCause has raised $2.6 million to date. This latest installment will allow the company to grow at an accelerated pace as it continues to meet the demand for its solutions from major enterprise organizations and global travel brands, such as Booking.com, easyJet, Google, Radisson Hotels and TUI.

In an era of heightened consumer scrutiny and regulatory compliance, BeCause enables hotels, travel brands and marketplaces to streamline, simplify and reduce the costs of managing their sustainability data. Backed by an AI-powered platform, BeCause eliminates repetitive, error-prone tasks such as manual data collection at the individual property level and automates communication between hotels, industry organizations, green certification entities and booking platforms, freeing up valuable resources and leading to greater transparency between stakeholders and consumers.

Serving as a centralized hub for all sustainability data, BeCause results in a sixfold faster return on sustainability investments, amounting to a potential savings of millions of dollars for a typical hotel chain in the first year alone.

Andreas Green Rasmussen, General Partner, Ugly Duckling Ventures: "We're very excited about BeCause's ability to improve sustainability data collection and reporting for the hospitality and tourism industries. It's a massive addressable market which thus far has lacked a purpose-built solution with the analytical capabilities to help players supercharge their positive impact on the people, planet, and profits."

According to a June forecast from research and advisory company Forrester, the cumulative global green market spend is expected to total $325 trillion from now until 2050, with travel and transportation commanding 35% or about $114 trillion of that spend by the end of this period. By adopting the BeCause platform, hospitality, travel and tourism brands can responsibly capitalize on this demand.

Kärt Siilats, Venture Partner, Superangel.io: "We came in as a co-lead on this fundraising round because we believe in the power of BeCause to increase certified sustainability and decrease greenwashing in the accommodations sector. We are also very impressed by how fast the team has built a product that some of the world's biggest brands are comfortable using."

BeCause currently has over 20,000 hotels streaming sustainability data through its platform. It also counts over 50 certifiers, including GreenKey, and 15 travel booking marketplaces, including Booking.com, amongst its users.

"This newest round of funding allows us to continue our work with stakeholders in the hospitality industry and gives us the ability to respond to the massive interest in our sustainability data hub from adjacent industries like corporate travel and destinations and meetings," says Steensgaard. "We're thankful to Ugly Duckling Ventures, Superangel and all our investors for putting their faith in us and our solution, which is critical to making travel greener and reducing its impact on the environment."

Additional investors in this round include serial exit entrepreneur Sean Brown (UK); Director, Business Development and Partnerships for fintech unicorn Circle.com, Sean Evans (UK); and private investor Patrick Patrong (DK).

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