OpenAI acquires Odessia, travel startup created by Sonder founder

OpenAI has acquired Odessia, an AI travel-planning startup founded by Francis Davidson, who says he has joined the company to work on the future of travel. The deal’s terms were not disclosed and appears to be an acqui-hire; Odessia’s service has been shut down, and OpenAI has not announced any travel-specific product plans.

Odessia was about a year old, raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia and launched its travel agent roughly five months ago. Davidson said it helped early users plan millions of dollars’ worth of trips. He previously founded Sonder, which grew to $143 million in revenue before financial difficulties, a failed Marriott partnership and bankruptcy led to its closure. OpenAI says travel is among the topics people frequently ask ChatGPT about, and the chatbot has 1.2 billion weekly users.