Global Brain has invested in Wayfarer K.K., the company developing and providing Materia Connect, an AI operations platform for hotels, as the lead investor

Global Brain has invested in Wayfarer K.K. (Wayfarer), the company developing and providing Materia Connect, an AI operations platform for hotels, through its Canon Marketing Japan MIRAI Fund (Canon MJ MIRAI Fund) as the lead investor.

While AI is rapidly transforming digital operations, the adoption of AI in physical environments-including hotels-continues to face significant challenges. Hotels must coordinate a wide range of tasks in real time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, covering reservations, pricing, housekeeping, and staffing, among others. At the same time, many properties operate multiple disconnected systems and still rely heavily on manual processes. Wayfarer develops and provides Materia Connect, an AI hotel operations platform that integrates existing systems, operational data, and AI through APIs-without replacing existing property management systems.

Materia Connect is an AI-powered hotel operations platform that integrates revenue management, reservations, guest experience, on-site operations, and AI agent connectivity. Its feature set-including AI-driven dynamic pricing that has delivered up to 25% RevPAR improvement*, 90-second online check-in, and automated housekeeping and shift management-has been validated and refined across the 13 properties Wayfarer itself operates. The company is now expanding the platform to third-party hotels, with overseas expansion also in its future roadmap.

*RevPAR improvement figures represent the maximum achieved based on Wayfarer's operational results. Actual results will vary depending on the property, location, scope of deployment, market conditions, and other factors.

Global Brain has decided to invest in Wayfarer, recognizing its distinctive business model that integrates hotel operations with technology development, the differentiated capabilities of Materia Connect as an AI operations platform refined through real-world deployment across its own properties, and the exceptional execution of the founding team that has built every layer of the business through direct, hands-on engagement. Through this investment, Global Brain will actively support Wayfarer's hotel business expansion and the platform rollout of Materia Connect, including exploring potential collaboration with Canon Marketing Japan Inc. through Canon MJ MIRAI Fund.

Venture capitalists in charge: Tomoyuki Otsu / Seiichiro Mukai