Lighthouse

Overview

Founded in Ghent in 2012 by Gino Engels, Lighthouse began as OTA Insight and built one of the hospitality industry's most widely used revenue intelligence platforms. The product aggregates market data, competitor pricing, booking pace, and demand signals to help hotel revenue managers make better pricing and distribution decisions. Over time the company expanded from rate benchmarking into a broader business intelligence suite covering market forecasting and commercial strategy.

In November 2024, Lighthouse raised $370M in a Series C led by KKR, pushing its valuation to $2.4B and cementing its status as Belgium's 5th Unicorn. The company has relocated its headquarters to London but retains approximately 270 of its 700+ employees in Belgium, keeping a significant operational and engineering footprint in its home country.

The company's trajectory from a Ghent-founded startup to a multi-billion dollar global SaaS platform is one of the stronger examples in Belgian tech of a vertical AI product scaling to global market leadership.

Media & appearances

• Ben's MentorsYouTube2025-10-29
  Waarom de Meeste Start-Ups Falen en hoe jij Kan Groeien!Belgian unicorn whose co-founders originally moved to London due to the lack of a Belgian ecosystem.
• VirtualYouTube2025-07-02
  Virtual #26 - Travel hacks van een insider: slim en betaalbaar op vakantieGhent-based Belgian unicorn (valued over $1B) in hotel revenue management, founded after the founders noticed empty London hotels during the 2012 Olympics due to mispricing. Ghent-based unicorn (founded by Matthias Geeroms and team) that built revenue management algorithms for hoteliers after noticing half-empty London hotels during the 2012 Olympics. Additional recording: Virtual.
• WintercircusYouTube2025-06-30
  'The ODOO Story' Interview with Fabian Pinckaers and Louis JonckheereMentioned via a De Tijd interview with founder Mathias Heurmans that sparked ecosystem debate about Pinckaers' stance against stock options.
• SuperNovaYouTube2025-03-14
  SuperHero Conversations EP6 | Pieterjan Bouten - Entourage & Stan Callewaert - SquireCompany where Squire's co-founder and CTO Ines was lead developer before joining Squire.

Stated facts & numbers

• Lighthouse in Ghent is a Belgian unicorn valued at over $1 billion, specialized in hotel revenue management; it was founded after Matthias Geeroms and co-founders noticed empty London hotels during the 2012 Olympics.Virtual 2025-07-020:27:05
• Lighthouse (Ghent) is a Belgian unicorn valued at over a billion, born from observing half-empty London hotels during the 2012 Olympics.Virtual 2025-07-020:27:27