ASG, a portfolio company of Alpine Investors that buys, builds and operates vertical SaaS companies, has acquired hotel operations management platform ALICE from Expedia Group in a carve-out transaction.
ALICE marks the 36th acquisition for ASG and the fourth within the ASG Hospitality Technology vertical. ALICE joins Transcendent, acquired in 2019; ProfitSword, acquired in 2020; and Visual Matrix, acquired earlier this year.
“We are incredibly excited that Expedia Group and ALICE are trusting us with ALICE’s next chapter of growth, especially at such an important moment in the recovery of the hospitality industry,” said Steve Reardon, CEO, ASG. “Justin [Effron], Dmitry [Koltunov], Alex [Shashou] (ALICE’s founders] and the entire ALICE team have built an incredible brand and product that has proven mission critical to hotel properties and essential to travelers during COVID. We believe more deeply than ever before in the future of hotel operations software and ALICE’s position of strength in the market.”
Headquartered in New York City, ALICE was founded in 2013. It was born out of a frustrating hotel experience while Shashou and Effron were traveling together through Asia. After witnessing the inefficiencies in communications within a hotel, they teamed up with Koltunov as their technical cofounder. They built ALICE to provide hotel managers with the tools they need to improve guest satisfaction and streamline operational costs. Today, ALICE is used by more than 25,000 hoteliers around the world.
“ASG’s proven track record in growing software companies coupled with their expertise in hospitality makes them the right partner for ALICE’s next chapter,” said Effron. “We have felt a strong alignment of values since the beginning and are excited about what we’re going to be able to achieve together, especially as the industry continues to recover.”
