Start of journey Leila — backed by seed capital M13, Booking.com co-founder Andy Phillips, Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith and Paris Hilton — said today it has acquired the AI-powered itinerary bot Wander around. Layla did not disclose the valuation of the deal.
Roam Around was founded last year by Shie Gabbai, a former Google employee who worked on Waze. The company raised $1 million from investors including FLYR.com and Jason Calacanis. As part of the deal, the five-person team of Roam Around joins Layla. To date, Roam Around has created 10 million itineraries with half a million people visiting its site each month.
Layla went public last year with its AI bot that helps users plan their trips by gathering insights from sources as diverse as Booking.com and Skyscanner. Jeremy Jauncey, the founder of travel agency Beautiful Destinations, co-founded the startup. That’s why Layla leverages a huge library of content from travel creators to show users unique views and clips when they’re looking for a place to visit.
Saad Saeed, co-founder of Layla, said the company believed Roam Around complemented Layla’s product with itineraries and partnerships with the likes of TripAdvisor, Kayak, Viator and GetYourGuide.
“Roam Around was truly the fastest growing travel AI startup. They have really exploded with their entire itinerary product and have gained a lot of customer traction. We were very successful with social, so we really complemented each other’s strengths a lot,” he said on a call with TechCrunch.
“We were very focused on having the best flight forecasting models, hotels, partnerships with Skyscanner and Booking.com. While they had focused a lot on the itineraries integrating Viator and all the restaurants. So the idea was really to bring the best of both worlds together.”
Layla has already started integrating her Roam Around product. So users can retrieve better route data while using Layla. On the other hand, Layla has also placed her bot on the Roam Around website.
Image Credits: Wander around
Saeed said the startup is going to phase out the Roam Around brand and fully integrate it with Layla.
Travel startups including Kayak and Expedia have released GPT Plugins. Meanwhile, the Matador network’s GuideGeek tool displays real-time flight details. Just like Layla, Matador wants to incorporate influencer videos into results. In India, navigation company MapMyIndia has backed a startup called Congowhich strives to create an AI-based product to assist users with travel experiences while focusing on the localization of the experience.
