Acai Travel, a startup offering AI tools to power optimize travel operations for the agency community, has landed $4 million in seed funding.
The investment in the New York-based business, which was founded in 2023, was led by Nauta with DraperB1 and existing investor One Travel Ventures also participating.
The funding will further the startups’ ambition to build an operating system to drive efficiency in travel operations and enhance the traveler experience.
Acai, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2024, already counts travel companies including Kiwi.com and Lastminute.com among its customers.
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Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership to implement its AI technology to power client updates for Globespan Travel Management.
"Acai is using AI to modernize travel operations with fast and easy-to-use tools so agents can focus on what they do best — delivering exceptional travel experiences. It’s an exciting milestone to raise a Seed round from experienced investors who understand the industry challenge and are backing us to solve it," said Riccardo Vittoria, co-founder and CEO of Acai Travel.
Vittoria has been working with AI for travel for some time. In 2015 he co-founded 30SecondstoFly, an AI-powered booking engine for corporate travel, which was acquired by Amex GBT in 2020.
“In under four months, we've reduced average handling time by 20% for one of our TMC customers on a single account,” said Henry Chen Weinstein, co-founder and executive chairman of Acai.
“As we roll out our full suite of products, including enabling non-GDS trained agents to manage complex requests, we can achieve a 70% cost reduction.”
And said Jordi Viñas, general partner at Nauta, "COVID-19 restrictions caused a huge drop in demand for travel and subsequently led to many trained agents leaving the sector. As demand returned to pre-pandemic levels, companies have struggled with efficiency and profitability. But Acai Travel’s platform, making use of LLM technologies and deep sector expertise, transforms travel operations by enabling companies to reduce handling times, hire untrained agents and build a cheaper, more flexible workforce.”