The Ghent-based technology start-up Rookoo, which builds digital colleagues for events and hospitality teams, has raised €900,000 in a funding round. Investors include entrepreneurs behind Wintercircus, Showpad, Henchman and MTM Group. PMV and KBC Innovation Banking are also joining the growth story.
Rookoo develops smart, AI-driven digital colleagues that relieve event and hospitality teams from repetitive administration. Today, these teams face a flood of incoming requests - often incomplete or unstructured - leading to administrative overload and missed opportunities.
“Event and hospitality teams spend far too much time on admin. We want them to be able to focus again on experience, creativity and hospitality,” says Jeroen Borloo, CEO and co-founder of Rookoo.
Rookoo’s digital colleagues automatically handle incoming inquiries, regardless of the communication channel. They organise, categorise and follow up requests and turn them into clear action points for the team. This allows customers to be helped faster, quotes to be prepared more efficiently and repetitive tasks to be minimised. Rookoo is already used today by, among others, Wintercircus Ghent, Tour & Taxis, Brussels Special Venues, SPIN and The Arena Group.
With the newly raised capital, Rookoo plans to further expand its platform. In addition to intake, categorisation and communication, the company is developing new modules for price optimisation and capacity management. It also aims to offer data-driven insights around conversion, workload and offering, enabling organisations to plan better and make informed decisions.
“By linking conversations with planning and data, we can not only relieve teams but also help them work smarter,” Borloo explains. “Our digital colleague learns alongside the company and evolves with the needs of the team.”
International ambitions
The Ghent start-up is looking beyond Belgium and already has customers in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Soon, the company will take its next step with an official launch in the Dutch market at EventSummit, the largest trade show for the event industry in the Netherlands.
The funding round brings together a broad group of entrepreneurs from the Flemish tech and start-up ecosystem. Investors include Louis Jonckheere (Wintercircus), Jorn Vanysacker (100In, ex-Henchman), Gilles Mattelin (100In, ex-Henchman & Tout Bien), Jean-Michel Teerlinck (MTM Group, Artion), Stefaan and Bernard Rossel (Bavet, Burney’s, Frans & Bertha), Matthias Stevens (Dynamate), Pieter Vanermen, Gilles Teerlinck, Tanguy Serraes, Anthony De Clerck, Hendrik Isebaert, Louis Mahy, Piet Van Waes and Olivier Saverys. The round was supported by KBC Innovation Banking and PMV and was facilitated through a collaboration with Ghent-based funding agency The Harbour.
This wide array of investors reflects confidence in both the market and the team. The founders - Jeroen Borloo, Anthony Meirlaen, Thibaut Vincent and Jared Dierickx - met while working at Clarabridge and Qualtrics, where they gained experience in customer interaction and AI technology.