4 min
We're excited to share that Zaplar has been accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2026 batch. Alongside YC's investment of USD 500,000, we've raised an additional USD 320,000 from Nyman Holding and entrepreneur and investor Michael Ingelög.
We're building a new kind of operating system for the hotel and event industry, where AI agents handle everything from bookings and quoting to planning, communication, and operations.
The systems hotels run on today were built long before generative AI existed. That's the core problem: you can't get the full benefit of this technology by bolting it onto software that was never designed for it. So we're building the other way around, from the ground up for AI agents. A cognitive layer lets the system understand how a hotel's resources relate to one another, including rooms, conference spaces, staff, and guests. That understanding is what lets our AI plan, coordinate, and carry out work on its own.
We believe the next generation of hospitality software won't be yet another system staff have to administer. It'll be an intelligent system that works autonomously in the background. The hotel industry is one of the world's largest service markets, but also one of the most administrative. We see an enormous opportunity to help the industry focus on what matters: the guest, the meeting, and the experience.
About us
Zaplar was founded in 2026 by Axel Andersson Lingbert, Douglas Solberg, Jon Milles, and Oscar Karlströmer. The team brings together backgrounds in engineering, computer science, and economics from Lund University, the University of Chicago, and the Stockholm School of Economics.
For more information
Axel Andersson Lingbert, CEO and co-founder, Zaplar, axel@zaplar.com
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Helping exceptional hoteliers do their best work.
We believe great hospitality is about being present with the guest, not spending time infront on a screen.
