Key facts
- Francis Davidson said OpenAI acquired Odessia and that he is now working for OpenAI on the future of travel.
- Terms of the deal were not disclosed; TechCrunch reported it appears to be an acqui-hire.
- Odessia raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia and launched its AI travel agent around five months before November 10, 2026.
- Davidson said Odessia had helped early adopters plan millions of dollars worth of travel; the tool has been shut down.
- OpenAI did not announce the acquisition and did not confirm it to TechCrunch when asked.
- Davidson founded Sonder in 2014; it went public via a SPAC, entered bankruptcy and wound down.
OpenAI has acquired Odessia, an AI travel agent, according to Odessia founder Francis Davidson. In a post announcing the deal, Davidson said he is now working for OpenAI, helping the AI lab with the future of travel. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch reported that the transaction appears to be an acqui-hire, a deal that brings in a company's people more than its product.
OpenAI did not announce the acquisition and did not confirm it to TechCrunch when asked. The company has not announced travel-specific products or plans. It counts Booking.com, Expedia and KAYAK as customers or partners, according to the report.
Davidson said he built Odessia by directing teams of AI agents. The year-old company raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia and launched its AI travel agent around five months before November 10, 2026. Davidson said it had helped early adopters plan millions of dollars worth of travel, and the tool has since been shut down.
Davidson founded the travel startup Sonder as a college student in 2014. The pandemic hurt the business, and Sonder went public via a SPAC but did not raise as much money as it needed, Davidson later said in a post announcing his resignation as CEO in June 2025. After a key partnership with Marriott fell through, Sonder went into bankruptcy and wound down. A bankruptcy trustee sold Sonder's name, trademarks and website domain in 2026 to TravelAI. Before its downfall, Davidson had built Sonder into a unicorn with $143 million in revenues, according to the report.
OpenAI launched the ChatGPT agent in July 2025 and mentioned travel as one of its potential uses, according to the report.