Otto, a startup developing an intelligent agent for business travelers has raised $6 million in a seed round.
The investment in the Seattle-based company was led by Madrona Ventures, with travel management company Direct Travel and angel investors including Erik Blachford, a former CEO of Expedia, Barney Harford, former CEO of Orbitz and Hugh Crean, former CEO of Farecast, also participating. Concur founder and Madrona managing director Steve Singh acquired Direct Travel in April.
Using artificial intelligence, Otto wants to create a travel assistant to plan, book and support business travelers during a trip. The technology will learn a traveler's preferences from airline to hotel and other travel elements.
The startup is targeting unmanaged business travelers and the plan is to integrate the technology with other suppliers in the space including Direct Travel and Spotnana, where Singh has been CEO since June.
Otto grew out of Madrona Venture Labs with Singh playing a significant role getting the business up and running.
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Singh is executive chairman of Otto and will work alongside Michael Gulmann, founder and CEO of Otto, who has held previous product, marketing and sales roles across travel including chief product officer and senior vice president of marketing for Egencia and chief product officer and senior vice president of consumer products for Expedia Group.
"With an integration with Spotnana, and a partnership with Direct Travel, Otto is set to transform the way business travelers plan and book their trips," Gulmann said.
"By providing a personalized, convenient and smart travel assistant that understands their needs and preferences, Otto is ushering in a new era of travel."
Singh added: "AI is going to bring massive changes to the travel industry. We are excited to apply our deep understanding of the infrastructure of the travel industry to help build an AI agent for frequent business and leisure travelers who today are either scheduling their own trips or working with a trusted human executive assistant to do so."
In an interview with PhocusWire, following Singh's acquisition of Direct Travel, he alluded to an investment in an AI assistant as a further piece in the drive to achieve the "Perfect Trip."
At the time, he said there would be a "conversational interface into travel that’s going to accelerate how easy it is to use travel services.”
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