Lilo, the artificial intelligence startup founded in 2023 by the Chilean Javier Araya Kopaitic and Nadine ElAshkar between Santiago and New York, was acquired by Inn-Flow, an American platform specialized in finance and operations for the hotel industry based in North Carolina. The operation was completed in less than three years since the company was founded and represents the third exit of Javier Araya, who previously sold the fitness startup MuvPass to ClassPass and participated in the creation of Blik, a leading audio and electronics brand in the Chilean market.
The idea for Lilo was born during Javier Araya’s time at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he investigated B2B purchasing and payment processes. From this academic work, the team developed AI tools capable of automating hotel procurement, one of the most manual and fragmented areas of hotel operations in the United States, reducing the time spent on purchasing processes by up to 80% and the total cost of inputs by up to 7%.
A product that conquered the most demanding market
In less than three years, Lilo managed to position itself in the United States and Canada serving more than 400 hotels, and attracted the interest of international funds such as Index Ventures, Headline and Precursor Ventures, in addition to Twelve Below, Blue Lion, Add Ventures and Burst Capital.
“That a consolidated American company has sought to integrate our technology shows that from Latin America you can build world-class software to compete in the most demanding market on the planet,” said Javier Araya, founder of Lilo.
Inn-Flow, founded in 2009, currently works with more than 1,000 hotels in the United States, has more than 150 employees and maintains a customer retention rate of 98%.
Santiago as a technological development hub
Although Lilo’s headquarters operated from New York, the startup established its engineering core in Santiago, with a team distributed between Chile, Asia, Europe and the United States. With 35 people in total, the technology office in Santiago will continue to operate under the new controlling group, consolidating Chile as a development base for a solution that competes as equals in the North American hotel market.
For Javier Araya, the operation validates a thesis that has guided his three exits: that Latin American technological talent can build world-class products without having to move their teams to the north.
