AI startup Airial turns travel TikToks into bookable itineraries. Read its pitch deck that helped it land $3 million.
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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. The San Francisco-based company was cofounded by two avid travelers who left their engineering jobs at Meta and Waymo to build Airial. Airial uses AI reasoning to drill down into “the hundreds of little constraints and dependencies that come up” while planning a trip. It’s also exploring advertising, freemium AI features, and a creator program where influencers can sell their itineraries.
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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: https://www.businessinsider.com/airial-ai-startup-raises-3-million-tiktoks-travel-plans-2025-6