Year-old AI travel agent startup founded by Sonder's Francis Davidson, acquired by OpenAI with its product shut down.
OpenAI has acquired Odessia, a one-year-old AI travel agent startup, with founder Francis Davidson joining OpenAI to help explore the travel business. Odessia had raised a $6M pre-seed led by Sequoia and launched an AI itinerary-planning service five months ago. OpenAI disclosed no concrete travel product or roadmap, saying only that travel is a frequent ChatGPT query topic.
OpenAI has acquired Odessia, a year-old AI travel agent startup founded by Sonder founder Francis Davidson, in what appears to be an acqui-hire; terms were not disclosed. Odessia had raised a $6 million pre-seed led by Sequoia and its travel agent helped early users plan millions of dollars in trips, but the product has already been shut down. The move signals OpenAI's push into travel, a high-frequency use case for personal AI assistants.