Latest news with #Airial
Mint
4 days ago
- Business
- Mint
AI travel startup Airial has built a tool that can plan your holiday in seconds
Planning a holiday often means juggling flights, hotels, local transport and activities across multiple websites or paying a premium to a travel agency to do it for you. Now, a wave of AI travel startups is working to change that. With artificial intelligence gaining traction in the travel industry, companies are racing to build tools that can handle end-to-end trip planning. One such player is Airial, a travel-tech startup founded by two former Meta engineers, Archit Karandikar and Sanjeev Shenoy, that promises to simplify the process. Its AI-powered platform creates personalised itineraries within seconds, covering everything from bookings to restaurant suggestions, all in one place. Airial lets users input basic travel details, such as starting and ending locations, to generate a full itinerary. The platform includes flights, hotel bookings, local transport, restaurant suggestions, and tourist attractions. Users can either set their preferences up front or make changes after viewing the suggested plan. The interface offers an overview of the entire trip, with clickable segments for daily plans. Users can explore each activity to view location, reviews, suggestions and alternatives. The tool also includes a map view that displays all the places scheduled for the day, helping users understand the distance and time required to travel between points. It also accounts for transit time, wait periods at stations and the possibility of nearby day trips. In addition, the platform can answer queries about specific places and tailor recommendations to user preferences. Social media and creator integration One of Airial's newer features allows users to add content from creators. A user can link a blog, TikTok or Instagram Reel and add locations mentioned in the content to their itinerary. The tool can also surface relevant TikTok videos based on the user's destination and preferences. Additionally, Airial supports trip sharing and collaborative planning. It has included cars and buses in multi-city travel options. Users can view trips created by friends and make modifications, bringing a social element to the planning process. Founded by former Meta engineers Airial was founded by Archit Karandikar and Sanjeev Shenoy, who were college friends in India. Karandikar previously worked in engineering roles at Meta, Google, and Waymo, focusing on AI-based products. Shenoy worked at Meta as well, with the Instagram Reels team. The founders said their shared interest in travel led them to build a product that could function like a detailed digital travel agent. 'Most platforms just help you build a rough plan. We focus on logistics, connecting dozens of APIs and factoring in multiple parameters like transfer time, hotel proximity, and transit availability,' said Karandikar in an interview with TechCrunch. The startup's AI model is based in part on research from a DeepMind paper called AlphaGeometry, which focuses on solving complex geometry problems. Airial combines this inference method with large language models (LLMs) to create personalised travel plans. Airial has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Montage Ventures, with participation from South Park Commons, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India) and angel investors from companies like Meta, Dropbox, and UiPath. The company claims to have 'tens of thousands' of monthly users. For now, its focus is on user growth rather than monetisation. In the near future, Airial plans to launch iOS and Android apps and add vertical search options for hotels, activities and influencer-generated content.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ex-Meta engineers have built an AI tool to plan every detail of your trip
The travel industry has gathered extensive data over the years about trips and transportation, and founders are using it to use it to create every conceivable kind of AI travel startup. In fact, every word of this sentence is a link to a new AI travel tool. Now, startups and incumbent travel tech companies are in a race to build one comprehensive tool that could plan and manage every part of your trip. Airial is one of the contenders that's banking on its ability to map out your entire travel experience end-to-end. At a surface level, here's how it works: to begin, you can type in some details about any trip that you want to take, and the AI will create a plan for you, including your starting and ending points. You can choose an instant trip function to quickly create a travel plan that includes flights, hotels, and transport across multiple cities. The platform also generates a daily itinerary for you to visit interesting places and eat at restaurants. You can specify your preferences while planning or modify them later after looking at the plan. The interface shows you your overall trip plan, and you can click on each phase to see the daily itinerary and the places AI has suggested for you to visit. You can click on each item to see an overview, reviews, location, and alternatives. Plus, the assistant can answer questions about each particular place for you. Airial also shows a map view of all the places you are visiting that day, so you can gauge the distance between points. It also shows details like transfer time, wait time at train stations, and whether you can take a day trip to a place nearby. Moreover, you can add a link to a blog, TikTok, or a Reel, and add items mentioned by a creator to your itinerary. The tool also surfaces TikTok videos related to a city based on your prompts and details that you've provided, so if you don't have a prior inspiration, you don't have to look for it. The company was founded by Archit Karandikar and Sanjeev Shenoy, who were college friends in India. Karandikar has held various engineering roles at Meta, Google, and Waymo, working on using AI in products. Shenoy worked at Meta primarily on the team that developed Instagram Reels. The duo said that they've always had a passion for travel, so they wanted to build something in the sector. They described the Airial experience as working with your family's travel agent. 'Pretty much all the other companies we know in the space are focused on creating a rough plan for you. With our models, we reason thoroughly over the logistics part of your trip with a focus on details. We integrate dozens of APIs and consider many parameters to map out your flights and trains, figure out connectivity time, and [determine the] proximity of activities from your hotel,' Karandikar told TechCrunch over a call. Karandikar said that the startup's value proposition to users is personalization and time saving. He said that if you are a vegetarian and mention that to the AI tool, it will only suggest suitable eating joints for you. The company has based the training of its AI models on a paper by DeepMind researchers called AlphaGeometry. According to the startup, the paper describes an AI system that solves geometry problems. At its core, Airial is combining that inference method with LLMs to build travel plans. The startup has raised $3 million in seed funding that was led by Montage Ventures with participation from South Park Commons, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India), and individual investors from Meta, UiPath, and Dropbox. Daphne Che, a principal at Montage Ventures, said that the team's technical understanding will give them an edge over other teams. 'I think every consumer who wants to plan travel will run into issues of [too] many options and variables to figure out. It is hard for a company just using LLMs straight up to solve these problems. Airial's tech stack can reason over thousands of variables to figure out the best spots and transport for you while keeping your requirements in mind,' she said. Airial said it has 'tens of thousands of monthly visitors,' and the company is focusing on growing users rather than revenue. The company said it recently added features like trip sharing and collaborative trip building. It has also added cars and buses as options for multi-city transit. The travel tool has further added a social aspect, which allows users to view a friend's trip and modify it. In the coming months, the company wants to work on iOS and Android apps for its platform. The startup also wants to provide verticalized search for hotels, activities, and influencer videos. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
6 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Ex-Meta engineers have built an AI tool to plan every detail of your trip
The travel industry has gathered extensive data over the years about trips and transportation, and founders are using it to use it to create every conceivable kind of AI travel startup. In fact, every word of this sentence is a link to a new AI travel tool. Now, startups and incumbent travel tech companies are in a race to build one comprehensive tool that could plan and manage every part of your trip. Airial is one of the contenders that's banking on its ability to map out your entire travel experience end-to-end. At a surface level, here's how it works: to begin, you can type in some details about any trip that you want to take, and the AI will create a plan for you, including your starting and ending points. You can choose an instant trip function to quickly create a travel plan that includes flights, hotels, and transport across multiple cities. The platform also generates a daily itinerary for you to visit interesting places and eat at restaurants. You can specify your preferences while planning or modify them later after looking at the plan. The interface shows you your overall trip plan, and you can click on each phase to see the daily itinerary and the places AI has suggested for you to visit. You can click on each item to see an overview, reviews, location, and alternatives. Plus, the assistant can answer questions about each particular place for you. Airial also shows a map view of all the places you are visiting that day, so you can gauge the distance between points. It also shows details like transfer time, wait time at train stations, and whether you can take a day trip to a place nearby. Moreover, you can add a link to a blog, TikTok, or a Reel, and add items mentioned by a creator to your itinerary. The tool also surfaces TikTok videos related to a city based on your prompts and details that you've provided, so if you don't have a prior inspiration, you don't have to look for it. Archit Karandikar and Sanjeev Shenoy Image Credits: Airial The company was founded by Archit Karandikar and Sanjeev Shenoy, who were college friends in India. Karandikar has held various engineering roles at Meta, Google, and Waymo, working on using AI in products. Shenoy worked at Meta primarily on the team that developed Instagram Reels. Techcrunch event Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The duo said that they've always had a passion for travel, so they wanted to build something in the sector. They described the Airial experience as working with your family's travel agent. 'Pretty much all the other companies we know in the space are focused on creating a rough plan for you. With our models, we reason thoroughly over the logistics part of your trip with a focus on details. We integrate dozens of APIs and consider many parameters to map out your flights and trains, figure out connectivity time, and [determine the] proximity of activities from your hotel,' Karandikar told TechCrunch over a call. Karandikar said that the startup's value proposition to users is personalization and time saving. He said that if you are a vegetarian and mention that to the AI tool, it will only suggest suitable eating joints for you. The company has based the training of its AI models on a paper by DeepMind researchers called AlphaGeometry. According to the startup, the paper describes an AI system that solves geometry problems. At its core, Airial is combining that inference method with LLMs to build travel plans. The startup has raised $3 million in seed funding that was led by Montage Ventures with participation from South Park Commons, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India), and individual investors from Meta, UiPath, and Dropbox. Daphne Che, a principal at Montage Ventures, said that the team's technical understanding will give them an edge over other teams. 'I think every consumer who wants to plan travel will run into issues of [too] many options and variables to figure out. It is hard for a company just using LLMs straight up to solve these problems. Airial's tech stack can reason over thousands of variables to figure out the best spots and transport for you while keeping your requirements in mind,' she said. Image Credits: Airial Airial said it has 'tens of thousands of monthly visitors,' and the company is focusing on growing users rather than revenue. The company said it recently added features like trip sharing and collaborative trip building. It has also added cars and buses as options for multi-city transit. The travel tool has further added a social aspect, which allows users to view a friend's trip and modify it. In the coming months, the company wants to work on iOS and Android apps for its platform. The startup also wants to provide verticalized search for hotels, activities, and influencer videos.
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
AI startup Airial turns travel TikToks into bookable itineraries. Read its pitch deck that helped it land $3 million.
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. "Just imagine your trip, and Airial it!" "Retention is key to both margin and scale. The personal touch drives retention in travel." "We understand AI, Optimization, and Social Products."
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
AI startup Airial turns travel TikToks into bookable itineraries. Read its pitch deck that helped it land $3 million.
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.
