Oslo-based AI hospitality startup Altek AI has secured €423k ($500k) in pre-Seed funding to deepen integrations with hotel systems, expand autonomous guest communication workflows, and accelerate growth across Scandinavia and Europe.
The round was led by StartupLab, a Norwegian incubator, accelerator and early-stage investor focused on technology startups.
Building AI agents, not chatbots
Founded in 2024, Altek is developing what it describes as an AI operating layer for hotels. Rather than offering assistive tools that help staff draft replies, the company is building autonomous AI agents that handle guest communication end-to-end and, where possible, take actions directly inside hotel systems.
These agents operate across email, web chat, messaging apps, social channels and phone, and are deeply integrated with property management systems (PMS) and booking engines.
“We’re not building another tool that just helps staff write replies faster,” said co-founder Jon-Fredrik ‘Joffen’ Hopland. “We’re building AI agents that can handle a large part of guest communication end-to-end and, where possible, act inside hotel systems. We’re building digital employees.”
From operator research to live hotels
Before incorporating, the founding team conducted extensive interviews with hotel operators to understand where guest communication breaks down in daily operations. This research led to an early pilot project in 2024 with a spa resort outside Oslo, where Altek tested multiple autonomous workflows in live environments.
The pilot demonstrated that hotels adopt automation quickly when it removes repetitive work without adding new systems staff need to manage.
Since then, Altek has grown to 37 hotels live across Norway, Sweden and Denmark. As of January 2026, the company reports approximately €119k in ARR, with around 26 percent month-over-month growth.
Among its customers is The Well, one of Norway’s largest spa resorts. Over the past year, Altek AI’s agents have handled more than 23,000 messages and 16,000 conversations, helping reduce response times for routine inquiries and freeing staff to focus on more complex guest requests.
Addressing a growing operational bottleneck
Hotels are facing increasing complexity, driven by a growing number of communication channels, rising guest expectations, and ongoing staffing constraints.
According to Altek AI, guest communication has become an overlooked operational cost centre. Based on data from one customer, a mid-sized hotel can handle around 87,000 guest inquiries per year via email and phone alone. At an average of six minutes per inquiry, this equates to more than 8,700 hours annually, excluding missed upsell opportunities and service issues caused by slow responses.
“Guests don’t care whether they contact a hotel via email, web chat or Instagram. They expect fast, accurate answers and that the hotel knows who they are,” said co-founder Kristoffer S. Pedersen.
Part of a wider hospitality AI funding landscape
Altek AI’s pre-Seed round comes amid a highly stratified flow of capital into European hospitality and hotel operations technology.
At the large-cap end of the market, Amsterdam-based Mews recently raised €255 million in Series D funding to expand automation, payments and AI-enabled workflows across hotel operations. Barcelona-based Amenitiz secured €38.9 million in Series B funding to accelerate AI-led product development for independent hotels.
Earlier-stage investments show more targeted bets on guest communication and operational automation. Vienna-based chatlyn raised €8 million to build an AI-driven guest communication hub, London-based Inntelo AI closed a pre-Seed round of more than €576k, and Amsterdam-based Toppi secured close to €1 million to scale AI solutions for hospitality businesses.
In parallel, tech-enabled hospitality platforms continue to attract significant capital, including Madrid-based Room00 Group, which announced up to €400 million to expand its urban hospitality platform across Europe.
Against this backdrop, Altek AI’s raise aligns with a growing cohort of sub-€1 million early-stage rounds focused on deeply integrated, autonomous guest communication, while total disclosed funding across these hospitality and AI deals exceeds €700 million.
Next steps
Altek AI plans to use the new capital to deepen integrations with hotel systems, expand automation across the guest journey, and accelerate expansion beyond the Nordic region.
“Altek AI is tackling a global operational challenge with the ambition to build a new infrastructure layer for hotels,” said Jørgen Veiby, Investment Manager at StartupLab. “The team has shown strong execution and an ability to win paying customers early.”
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