The company that aims to become "the digital bank" for hotels.

In 2010, when he founded Omnibees, Luis Ferrinho had the ambition to build a large-scale used goods operation that could go far beyond the Algarve in southern Portugal, a market already dominated by another company he founded, Visualforma.

Since then, the Portuguese entrepreneur has been successful on this journey. Today, Omnibees software is behind the pricing and booking management of 7,000 hotels in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Portugal, carried out through different channels, from their own websites to platforms like Expedia and Booking.com .

In 2021, nearly R$10 billion passed through the company's systems. And now, the company wants to occupy a new space to expand its margins and its share of that amount, through the launch of the tourism fintech Bee2Pay.

“Reservations and payments are very complex issues and need to go hand in hand,” Ferrinho tells NeoFeed . “We already have access to all the negotiation and pricing rules, and with them, Bee2Pay has the potential to be four or five times larger than Omnibees in the future.”

The fintech began testing in 2021. In the pilot project, which included a base of 600 hotels, R$ 300 million in payments were processed. In January of this year, its first official month of operation, Bee2Pay reached a base of one thousand clients and more than R$ 60 million in transactions.

In this initial phase, it included the participation of resorts and large hotel chains such as Bourbon, Atlantica, and Costão do Santinho. At the same time, with this arm, Omnibees is also expanding its operations with companies, for the management of corporate travel.

The portfolio for this segment offers tools that allow companies to, for example, digitally manage and reconcile reservations, commissions, payments, and invoices, as well as issue virtual cards. Similar offerings are available for platforms, agencies, and travel operators.

In the case of hotel chains and hotels, the Bee2Pay platform allows for the automation of any and all processes related to payments and collections, in line with the pricing, cancellation, and guarantee policies pre-established by these clients.

“The sector deals with many specific rules and processes, and managing all of that manually is incredibly laborious,” explains Ferrinho. “Depending on what the hotel is looking for, we put together the payment arrangement and deliver it ready-made to them.”

With this startup, Omnibees is not the only company in this chain looking at financial products and services. In July of last year, Booking.com, for example, announced the creation of its own fintech company, with headquarters in the Netherlands and China, to begin operating in this space.

Aware of potential competition, Bee2Pay is already planning to expand its portfolio. On its radar are products and areas such as merchant acquiring and receivables financing. "Our main goal is a digital account for hotels," says the businessman. "In six months, the idea is to start a pilot project in that direction."

Today, the fintech uses a white-label banking-as-a-service platform, whose partner is not disclosed, to enable its offerings. In parallel, the company is already beginning to study the possibility of initiating a process with the Central Bank to operate as a Payment Institution.

Acquisitions are also part of the strategy to strengthen operations. In addition to obtaining licenses, the search for assets will be guided by fintechs focused on sectors smaller than tourism and that can bring, in particular, a team with experience in the financial segment.

By investing in an active M&A strategy, which extends to Omnibees, Ferrinho says that, from time to time, the group is also approached by funds interested in investing in the operation. To date, however, the company has not yet decided whether to pursue this path.

Aside from these moves, the group's team growth will also be organic. "To accelerate the business, we will hire at least 150 people for Bee2Pay and Omnibees this year," says Ferrinho.

To gain scale on the supply side, Bee2Pay will focus on converting Omnibees' 7,000 customers, which also includes networks such as Accor , Blue Tree, Meliá, and Intercity.

The plan also includes launching the fintech company in Mexico in the middle of the year and expanding into Colombia in the second half of the year. Simultaneously, the fintech will explore expanding Omnibees' existing customer base, which anticipates adding 2,500 new hotels in 2022.

With this wallet, Omnibees has the potential to process R$13 billion this year. "As for Bee2Pay, we expect to process R$3 billion," says Ferrinho. "And reach the R$13 billion transacted volume by 2023."

Behind these projections, he emphasizes that, after the initial months when the pandemic severely impacted the sector, the growth in domestic travel ended up benefiting the group, especially in Brazil, its main market. "Brazilians ended up discovering Brazil," he states. "And the trend is for this to strengthen, even when international travel returns."