Roller raises $7m to accelerate global growth

The all-in-one software platform for leisure and entertainment venues, Roller, has raised a $7 million Series B round of funding led by US based growth capital firm, Acadian Software, with participation from a number of Australian based investors.

Roller is an enterprise platform that allows leisure and entertainment venues to perform business critical functions such as online bookings and in-venue payments, and manage day-to-day operations and customer relationships.

The funding round brings the total amount raised by Roller since founding to $15m, which will be used to expand the product development team and accelerate growth in North America & Europe.

“We have invested heavily in building flexible and scalable technology, which allows us to serve several industry verticals including; theme parks, trampoline parks, museums, zoos, bowling alleys, ski fields, water parks and more,” said Luke Finn, co-founder and CEO of Roller.

“As a cloud based solution that is approaching a billion dollars of total transaction value, Roller has reached a scale where we are able see industry wide trends, best practices and technology needs. This places us in a unique position to help our clients drive value through a combination of data driven insights, improved customer engagement capabilities and targeted operating recommendations.”

Roller was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2011 by brothers Luke & Mark Finn, and now has a team of 50 across offices in Melbourne, London, and Los Angeles. Roller also supports clients in 15 countries, and has translated the platform into 12 languages including Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic and Korean.

Lillian McMillan, a client of Roller and manager of Gravity Zone trampoline park commented: “Simply put, the ROLLER platform has allowed us to grow revenue, improve our operating efficiency and helped us get to know our customers better. Roller is a software solution that can handle the complexity and volume our business needs, and after looking at the different vendors there’s really no comparison.”

According to industry body IAAPA, global theme and amusement park attendance is expected to reach 1.3 billion by 2020, and be worth US$58 billion in total spending. The market has been growing faster than nominal GDP growth since 2012, and Roller expects this to continue as consumer appetite for leisure and entertainment experiences continues to increase in all key markets around the world.

Talking about the future, Luke said “Roller will continue to invest heavily in technology and innovation in order to help our clients grow. This has been key to our success to date and we want to both maintain and build upon our reputation as a pioneer within the industry. We will remain extremely focused on delivering real outcomes for our clients, and are confident that in doing so, we will grow to become the leading technology provider in our target markets.”