Inn-Flow, a Cary-based software provider for the hotel industry, raised $45 million from private equity group Mainsail Partners of San Francisco. The money will accelerate Inn-Flow’s product innovation and help expand the company’s leadership team.
Founder and CEO John Erhart developed the software starting in 2009 to meet challenges facing Cary-based hotel management business, CMC Hotels. His father-in-law, G.S. Chabbra started CMC in 1984.
Inn-Flow launched as a business in 2014 and now has solutions for accounting, bookkeeping, labor management, payroll and business intelligence. It employs 170 people.
“We are committed to providing a robust, user-friendly, all-in-one platform that enables hotel owners and management companies to simplify their operations and grow their business profitably,” Erhart says in a release. “Mainsail’s deep experience in scaling vertical [software-as-a-service] platforms will help us further enhance our software platform to meet the evolving needs of the hospitality industry.”
In 2024, Inn-Flow processed 920,000 invoices, managing over $2.7 billion in payables volume, and reconciling nearly 5,000 bank accounts. The company supported more than 100,000 users, tracking nearly 15 million labor hours and overseeing payroll exceeding $200 million. The company serves operators with as many as 200 hotels, according to its website.
“We love partnering with vertical SaaS founders who were their own first customer,” says Vinay Kashyap, a Mainsail partner. “John’s firsthand experience with the complexities of hotel management led to the creation of a purpose-built, easy-to-use SaaS platform that we believe is well-positioned to transform back-office hotel operations.”
Erhart is a 1996 graduate of NC State University.
It’s the first external capital raised by Inn-Flow, and Mainsail is the sole investor, says Michael Hopkins, the company’s product marketing manager.
CMC operates about 10 hotels in North Carolina, including the Embassy Suites in uptown Charlotte and the Westin near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. It also has dining and real estate interests, according to its website.