Smartness has closed a €47 million Series B round, giving the Italian hospitality technology company fresh capital to expand its AI-driven platform for hotels, property managers and small accommodation groups. The financing combines primary equity, secondary equity and debt, and is described by available market data as the largest round completed in Italy by a vertical SaaS company. Led by United Ventures and CDP Venture Capital, the transaction places Smartness among the most closely watched European software scaleups serving the lodging sector.
Funding and Investors
Partech, which led Smartness’s Series A in late 2023, also participated in the new round, reinforcing the company’s existing shareholder base. Earlier backers include Techshop, the founders of Bending Spoons, Azimut and Rialto, a group that has supported the company’s shift from a single-product startup to a broader operating platform. With the latest financing, Smartness has now raised more than €60 million since its launch, strengthening its balance sheet for product development, geographic expansion and selective acquisitions.
From Smartpricing to Smartness
Founded in Trentino in 2020 by Luca Rodella, Eugenio Bancaro and Tommaso Centonze, the company began as Smartpricing, a dynamic pricing tool for accommodation operators. It has since rebranded as Smartness and expanded into a multi-product platform spanning revenue management, CRM, payments, property management, guest communications and operational AI tools. The company now serves more than 5,000 customers across 41 countries, employs 190 people in seven countries and has built particularly strong positions in Italy and the DACH region.
Building Agentic AI for Hospitality
The strategic focus of the new round is the development of what Smartness describes as the first agentic AI system designed specifically for hotels and vacation rentals. Rather than simply providing dashboards or recommendations, the platform is intended to carry out operational tasks on behalf of accommodation providers, including price optimization, guest interaction, marketing workflows and campaign execution. Operators would retain control over how much authority they delegate, with the option to review content, approve actions or allow selected processes to run automatically.
Expansion Strategy
Smartness says it has grown more than sixfold since its Series A and is currently recording organic growth of around 10 percent month over month, excluding the impact of acquisitions. For 2026, management aims to triple revenue through a mix of organic expansion and M&A, with organic growth expected to remain the main driver. The company is also evaluating additional European markets while continuing to deepen its presence one country at a time, an approach designed to build durable local positions rather than chase broad but shallow coverage.
Leadership and Market Context
Chief executive and co-founder Luca Rodella has framed the company’s opportunity as part of a wider shift from software tools to measurable business outcomes. In his view, lodging operators increasingly want systems that can improve occupancy, revenue and operational efficiency, rather than isolated applications that require constant manual management. United Ventures partner Fabio Pirovano has similarly positioned Smartness as a potential European category leader, citing the founding team’s hospitality expertise and the company’s ability to connect complementary products into one operating layer.
The Series B gives Smartness capital at a moment when hospitality operators are under pressure to improve profitability, personalize guest engagement and reduce manual work across fragmented systems. Its bet is that agentic AI can move hospitality software from advisory support to direct execution, provided hotels remain able to set boundaries and supervise sensitive decisions. If the company can deliver on its revenue targets, integrate acquisitions effectively and prove measurable customer outcomes, Smartness could become one of Europe’s defining AI software players in hospitality.