OpenAI acquires startup Odessia, founder moves to the company
According to founder Francis Davidson, OpenAI has taken over Odessia, a one-year-old startup with an AI travel agent. This appears to be a classic acqui-hire – the Odessia tool has already been shut down, the terms were not disclosed, and OpenAI has not confirmed the acquisition.
Francis Davidson, founder of the startup Odessia, announced that the company was bought by OpenAI and that he himself is now working for OpenAI on the future of travel. OpenAI has not publicly announced the acquisition, nor has it confirmed it to TechCrunch; the terms of the deal have not been disclosed. According to available information, this is a typical acqui-hire.
Odessia was a one-year-old startup with an AI travel agent that raised $6 million in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia. It launched the product about five months ago, and according to Davidson, it helped early users plan trips worth millions of dollars. However, the tool has already been shut down.
In the travel industry, Davidson is known as the founder of the startup Sonder, which he founded in 2014 as a college student and which focused on renting luxury apartments in major cities. Sonder reached unicorn status and revenue of $143 million, but the pandemic hit it hard. After going public via a SPAC, it failed to raise enough capital, and when a key partnership with Marriott fell through, Sonder ended up in bankruptcy. The Sonder name, trademarks, and domain were subsequently bought by TravelAI in 2026.
OpenAI counts companies such as Bookings.com, Expedia, and KAYAK among its partners or clients, and had already mentioned travel as one of the use cases for its ChatGPT agent back in July 2025. OpenAI has not yet announced any new products or plans specifically for the travel sector.
Why it matters
It shows how large AI companies acquire talented founders through acqui-hires instead of classic product acquisitions – the Odessia tool itself was discontinued, but the know-how and the person moved to OpenAI. For the travel industry, this is a signal that OpenAI is deepening its interest in the sector, where it already has partners such as Bookings.com or Expedia, even though specific plans are not yet public.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
For users of AI travel tools, this means that the Odessia product has stopped working and its functionality has not been replaced by a publicly available alternative from OpenAI.
More practical updates →For a business
For companies in the travel sector, it is relevant that OpenAI is strengthening its internal know-how in trip planning through an acqui-hire, which could in the future affect competition or cooperation with partners such as Bookings.com, Expedia, or KAYAK, although no specific product plans have been announced.
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