The key facts

  • OpenAI has acquired AI travel startup Odessia according to founder Francis Davidson; OpenAI itself has not confirmed the deal
  • Odessia raised $6 million in a pre-seed round a year ago led by Sequoia; the service has already been shut down
  • Davidson previously founded Sonder, which went bankrupt after the collapse of its partnership with Marriott

A deal announced by only one side

OpenAI has acquired Odessia, a startup building an AI agent for travel planning. The deal was announced by Odessia founder Francis Davidson himself: according to him, he now works at OpenAI and is helping the lab develop its travel direction. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and TechCrunch characterizes it as an acqui-hire — a purchase made for the team. Notably, OpenAI itself has not announced the acquisition, did not confirm it in response to the outlet's inquiry, and has not announced any new products or plans related to travel.

What is known about Odessia

The startup is about a year old: it raised $6 million in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia, and its AI travel agent launched roughly five months ago. Davidson claims the service helped early users organize trips worth millions of dollars, but the tool itself has already been shut down. According to his description, he built the agent by managing teams of AI agents. Notably, OpenAI already collaborates with travel companies — Booking.com, Expedia, and KAYAK are named among its clients and partners; travel was also mentioned as one of the use cases for ChatGPT agent at its launch in July 2025.

Background: Davidson's path after Sonder

Davidson is known in the travel industry as the founder of Sonder, a service he created as a student in 2014 for renting high-end apartments in major cities around the world. The pandemic hit the company hard; after emerging from the crisis, Sonder went public via a SPAC, but, as Davidson later wrote in a post about stepping down as CEO in June 2025, it raised less money than it needed. After the collapse of its key partnership with Marriott , the company went bankrupt and was wound down. In 2026, the bankruptcy trustee sold the Sonder name, trademarks, and domain to TravelAI, whose website now operates as a curated guide to accommodation rentals. Before the collapse, Davidson had grown Sonder to unicorn status with $143 million in revenue. For OpenAI, this acquisition means gaining a founder with extensive, albeit unsuccessful, experience specifically in the travel industry — even though the company has announced no specific plans in this area, and the deal itself has not been officially confirmed.