OpenAI has acquired artificial intelligence (AI) travel agent Odessia. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Francis Davidson, founder and CEO of Odessia, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2027, announced the news on LinkedIn.
"I founded Odessia less than a year ago with the goal to ship the best AI travel agent in the market, and I believe we achieved that. Over $60M/year of travel was planned by Odessia over the past summer by tens of thousands of early adopters. Using AI to plan and book extraordinary trips is now a reality," Davidson wrote, adding that he is also joining the team at OpenAI.
The Odessia website now only shows a notice about the the acquisition.
“We started Odessia to reinvent travel. This acquisition marks an exciting next chapter for that mission. As part of this transition, the Odessia service is no longer available,” the homepage reads, directing travelers to reach out to support for help with existing bookings or travel plans.
Armin Hamrah, who works in product at OpenAI, congratulated Davidson on X, writing, "I am so happy this worked out, and we're so lucky to have you. Ever since day one of Grove, your passion for reinventing consumer travel has had me fired up. Excited to build it together, and there's nobody better to be leading the effort for us."
Hamrah was referencing OpenAI Grove, "a program for technical talent at the very start of their company-building journey." OpenAI opened the application window in January and said the program went beyond a typical startup accelerator thanks to its talent network, access to OpenAI researchers and resources.
Odessia was founded earlier this year and announced $6 million in a funding round led by Sequoia in June. At the time, reactions to Odessia were somewhat mixed, particularly given its trip-planning model.
Sharing strategic goals with PhocusWire as part of our Hot 25 launch earlier this week, Davidson said the company was focused on "building the travel product people can’t imagine planning without, the one that feels like a brilliant friend with perfect taste and every rate in the world."
Davidson is also the co-founder of the formerly Marriott-backed short-term rental specialist Sonder Holdings, which ceased operations in November 2025. TravelAI acquired the Sonder brand this past July and relaunched Sonder.com.
On LinkedIn, Davidson said his approach to Odessia "was radically different" from Sonder, and he prioritized speed to keep up with the pace of intelligence.
PhocusWire reached out to Davidson for comment.
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