Connect with us

Funding & Business

AI Startup Airial Raises $3 Million to Turn TikToks Into Travel Plans

Published

on


Aspirational travel content runs rampant on social media, and now, an AI startup called Airial Travel wants to help bring the wanderlust offline.

Airial has raised $3 million in seed funding to help vacationers distill social content into actionable travel plans. Montage Ventures led the round, which included participation from South Park Commons and Peak XV.

In addition to deriving itineraries from TikToks, Instagram Reels, and travel blogs, users can make and refine plans by entering information about their interests, budgets, and schedules.

“People don’t want cookie-cutter trips,” Airial cofounder and CTO Sanjeev Shenoy told Business Insider. “They want all of this heavily customized, and they want the rest of the pieces to be handled seamlessly.”

The roughly two-year-old company was cofounded by Shenoy and Archit Karandikar, both avid travelers who left their engineering jobs at Meta and Waymo, respectively, to build Airial. The San Francisco-based company, with offices in India, has nine employees.

After launching a public beta last year, a mobile app will come in the third quarter, said Karandikar, Airial’s CEO.

Rather than producing a basic list of activities, Karandikar said Airial uses AI reasoning, which drills down into “the hundreds of little constraints and dependencies that come up” while planning a trip. This includes logistics like choosing the closest airports and hotels to desired sites and the best connections for buses and trains.

Airial isn’t the only startup looking to use AI to change the massive online travel agencies market. AI competitors include Mindtrip and Layla, while established players like Expedia are also forging partnerships with OpenAI and Google.

Karandikar said Airial focuses on user growth and eventually plans to make money by sharing revenue on hotel bookings and flights. It’s also exploring advertising, freemium AI features, and a creator program where influencers can sell their itineraries.

Here’s a look at the pitch deck that Airial Travel used to raise $3 million in seed funding.





Source link

Funding & Business

China Will Need to Stimulate Further in Second Half of 2025, Natixis Says

Published

on




Natixis chief Asia Pacific economist Alicia Garcia Herrero says she expects Beijing to announce more monetary and fiscal stimulus in the second half of the year. She tells Bloomberg Television that China’s economy fared better than expected in the first six months of 2025, but further policy moves will be needed to hit targets. (Source: Bloomberg)



Source link

Continue Reading

Funding & Business

Jane Street Ban Weighs on NSE Market Valuation and Expiry Turnover

Published

on




Before the trading day starts we bring you a digest of the key news and events that are likely to move markets. Today we look at:



Source link

Continue Reading

Funding & Business

Goldman Strategists Raise Asia Stock Targets, Upgrade Hong Kong

Published

on




Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists raised their forecast for Asian stocks, citing a more favorable macro environment and greater certainty around tariffs.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending