By Lea Mira, HTN staff writer – 4.21.2025
ROH, a payments management platform developed specifically for the hospitality sector, has reportedly closed a $9.2 million funding round. The round was led by Highgate Technology Ventures—the venture arm of leading hotel operator Highgate—and Acrew Capital, an early-stage venture firm with a focus on financial infrastructure and vertical SaaS. The capital will support continued product development and commercial expansion for ROH, which is based in Los Angeles and offers software that automates complex payment workflows across hotel operations.
ROH was launched to address what many see as a long-standing pain point in hospitality operations: the fragmented, labor-intensive nature of payment processing. Although hotels collectively process an estimated $4 trillion in payments annually, a large portion of that activity—upwards of 80 percent, by some accounts—still requires some level of manual oversight. This includes payments associated with groups and events, corporate contracts, OTA reservations, and specialized bookings such as airline crew accommodations. Each of these can involve back-and-forth communications, reconciliation challenges, and inconsistent timelines for collecting or remitting funds.
According to ROH’s founder and CEO Jess Conroy, the platform is designed to replace outdated, manual processes with tools that provide end-to-end visibility and control over the payment lifecycle. The software includes features for automating invoice generation, sending and collecting payments, issuing receipts, and managing refunds and chargebacks. ROH also offers compliance tools to help properties stay aligned with card network rules, with the goal of minimizing financial and reputational risk.
Over the past two years, select hotels within Highgate’s portfolio piloted ROH, focusing particularly on properties with active group sales and event revenue. The positive results from those early trials contributed to the decision to invest and scale up commercial deployment across the Highgate network.
In 2024, ROH reported that it processed nearly a quarter billion dollars in invoices through its platform. The company also launched an AI-powered ingestion tool that automates the flow of contract data from existing hotel systems into its payments workflow. According to ROH, usage of that AI module led to a 523 percent increase in automatically generated bookings based on executed contracts, underscoring the growing appetite for intelligent automation in the financial operations space.
The growth of ROH comes at a time when hotels are increasingly adopting back-office technology that aligns with broader digital transformation efforts. In recent years, payment automation and financial systems integration have become strategic priorities for hotels looking to reduce labor costs, improve cash flow visibility, and tighten control over receivables and guest transactions. Especially in a post-pandemic environment marked by staffing shortages and higher operational costs, more operators are investing in systems that reduce the need for manual work.
ROH is not alone in targeting these workflows. A number of platforms—such as Mews, Cloudbeds, and Stayntouch—offer integrated payment and property management functionality. Others, like FreedomPay and Adyen, provide payment gateways with advanced fraud protection and tokenization features. What distinguishes ROH, according to its investors, is its narrow focus on solving pain points specific to hotels’ contract-driven revenue, including group sales and negotiated accounts, where back-and-forth invoicing and reconciliation remains a persistent challenge.
Along with the investment, ROH has added new members to its board of directors: Raja Goel and Kurien Jacob of HTV, and John Gardner of Acrew Capital. The company says this funding will be used to accelerate platform growth and support the increasing volume of payment and invoicing activity being managed through its system.
The investment comes amid a larger wave of venture activity targeting vertical SaaS providers in industries such as hospitality, logistics, and commercial real estate, where paper-based workflows are still common and sector-specific solutions are in demand. For hotel owners and operators—particularly those managing complex portfolios—solutions like ROH offer a way to centralize financial operations, improve accountability, and reduce reliance on external collection or processing services.
As ROH continues to expand its footprint, it will be tasked with scaling its customer support and integration capabilities to meet the needs of a diverse range of hotel brands and management companies. While the platform’s early adoption by a major player like Highgate provides a compelling proof point, continued success will likely depend on its ability to integrate seamlessly with existing PMS, CRM, and accounting systems across a highly fragmented market.
Nonetheless, the momentum behind ROH—and the funding now in place to accelerate its growth—points to the increasing importance of payments infrastructure as a competitive lever in the hospitality space. As more operators look to simplify workflows, improve financial performance, and future-proof their tech stacks, ROH appears well-positioned to contribute to that evolution.
