OpenAI Acquires Odessia, travel startup created by Sonder founder

OpenAI has acquired an AI question cause called Odessia, according to Odessia’s founder, Francis Davidson. Davidson says successful a station announcing the woody that he’s present moving for OpenAI, helping the AI laboratory with the aboriginal of travel.

Terms of the woody were not disclosed, but this looks similar an acqui-hire. Davidson’s announcement focused mostly connected however helium built his AI question cause Odessia by directing teams of AI agents. The year-old Odessia raised a $6 cardinal pre-seed circular led by Sequoia, and launched its AI question cause astir 5 months ago. Davidson says that it had helped aboriginal adopters program millions of dollars worthy of travel, but the instrumentality has already been unopen down.

OpenAI did not denote this acquisition, nor corroborate it to TechCrunch, erstwhile asked. Nor has it announced caller travel-specific products oregon plans. It does, however, number specified companies arsenic Bookings.com, Expedia, and KAYAK arsenic customers oregon partners.

Travel is 1 of the main areas that radical are utilizing idiosyncratic AI assistants to assistance with. And, backmost successful July, 2025, erstwhile OpenAI launched its ChatGPT agent, it mentioned question arsenic 1 of its imaginable uses.

Acquiring Odessia is absorbing for different reason. Davidson is good known successful the question manufacture aft helium founded a question startup called Sonder arsenic a assemblage pupil successful 2014. It was benignant of similar Airbnb, but it focused connected leasing upscale apartments successful large cities worldwide. The pandemic severely wounded it, and arsenic it climbed retired of that rut, it went nationalist via a SPAC but didn’t rise arsenic overmuch wealth arsenic it needed, Davidson aboriginal said in a station announcing his resignation arsenic CEO successful June 2025.

When a cardinal concern with Marriott fell through, the institution went into bankruptcy and coiled down. The bankruptcy trustee sold Sonder’s name, trademarks, and website domain successful 2026 to TravelAI, and that website operates arsenic a curated usher to the benignant of question rental properties that Sonder was erstwhile known for. Prior to its downfall, Davidson had built Sonder into a unicorn with $143 cardinal successful revenues. While Sonder was not, ultimately, a occurrence story, Davidson is the benignant of battle-scarred laminitis that Silicon Valley often values.

So we’ll person to hold and spot what OpenAI has successful store now, with his joining the company. OpenAI has not yet responded to a petition for comment.