株式会社AZOO

Market position

Positioned as an all-in-one hotel DX vendor for Japan's lodging sector, competing against point solutions for PMS, booking engines, CRM and revenue management; investors cite adoption among leading regional accommodation facilities. The website reports 500+ (properties/users) and customer-reported outcomes of 15%+ increases in direct booking share and 90+ hours of manual work removed.

Single integrated system designed specifically for Japanese lodging operations and built around unified guest data, rather than separately procured booking, PMS, CRM and analytics tools; founded by data scientists, with emphasis on usability, multilingual support and an expanding set of third-party integrations and AI-assisted workflows.

Technology

Cloud-based all-in-one platform combining a direct booking engine (mobile, 10 languages, Stripe and PayPal card payments), PMS with Japanese/English interfaces, CRM with unified guest data, email marketing with open-rate and direct-booking conversion reporting, revenue management with ADR and RevPAR metrics and automated report distribution, and site-controller connectivity to 70+ OTAs. More recent releases add AI features such as automatic organization and translation of OTA notes, a room-link function to prevent double bookings across whole-house and connecting-room configurations, and an enhanced performance dashboard with ancillary-revenue mode, year-on-year indicators and day-of-week analysis. Integrations announced include Keycafe SmartBox, Smaregi cloud POS, Square payments, Google Hotel search, TEMAIRAZU site controller multi-connection, MIWA Lock Keypo timed key distribution, Baycom smart locks and Glory N300 automatic cash machines.

Go-to-market

Direct sales with free consultations and demo bookings via the product website, supported by press releases, a customer success team established to onboard and support properties, guidance on using public subsidies for system adoption, trade-show presence (International Hotel & Restaurant Show, February 2026) and speaking appearances such as an IVS2026 official side event. Partner integrations with lock, POS, payment and distribution vendors extend reach.

Hotels, ryokan and lodging operators in Japan, with emphasis on small and mid-sized regional properties; company materials cite that 93.1% of Japanese hotels/ryokan are small or mid-sized and that 79.1% of lodging businesses face labor shortages.

Geography

Headquartered at 680-1 Omandokoro-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan, serving accommodation businesses across Japan. The team works fully remotely with flexible hours and includes members based overseas, with staff from six countries.

History

AZOO was established in January 2020 in Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto with capital of JPY 1 million. In October 2020 it opened pre-registration for the beta of the WASIMIL hotel system, which at launch combined a direct booking engine, PMS, CRM, revenue management, email marketing and site-controller connectivity. A late-seed financing closed in August 2021 with Japan Finance Corporation, Bank of Kyoto, GxPartners, NEXT BLUE and W Ventures, funding usability work, hiring and the creation of a sales and customer success team on 30 September 2021. A pre-Series A round followed in July 2023, led by ALL STAR SAAS FUND, alongside Kyoto Angel Fund, G-STARTUP Fund, W fund, GxPartners, NEXT BLUE and angels Tomoya Nakano (i-plug CEO) and Masaki Yamamoto (Chatwork CEO), with proceeds directed to product investment and business development hiring. The company subsequently expanded into hotel marketing agency services (HotelDX) and owned media (WASIMIL LOCAL+EYES), and through 2025-2026 shipped a series of integrations and AI features.