OpenAI Acquires AI Travel Agent Odessia; Founder Joins, Service Shut Down

What happened

Davidson announced the acquisition on Nov 10 in posts on X and LinkedIn, saying he would join OpenAI to focus on the future of travel; Odessia's website confirmed the deal and said the service is no longer available, with existing bookings and travel plans handled through support. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed Davidson's hire to TechCrunch and announced no new travel product or plan.

Davidson founded Odessia about a year ago; it raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia in June, opened to the public on Oct 14, and had a team of eight. Its agent ran on OpenAI's GPT-5.5 and Codex models and could plan and book flights, hotels and full itineraries inside one conversation, holding IATA accreditation. Davidson said tens of thousands of users planned more than $60 million in annualized travel through the service over the summer.

On the same day as the acquisition, OpenAI launched a beta of Businesses in ChatGPT, where merchants can claim profiles and run AI customer service; this site covered it in the Nov 11 evening batch. Davidson previously founded the travel lodging company Sonder as a college student in 2014; that company later went bankrupt.

Key facts

1. Deal: OpenAI acquired Odessia, terms undisclosed; TechCrunch describes the deal as an apparent acqui-hire
2. Founder: Francis Davidson joins OpenAI to lead travel technology development; he founded Sonder in 2014
3. Company: Founded about a year ago, raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia in June, team of eight, opened to the public on Oct 14
4. Product: Built on GPT-5.5 and Codex, it planned and booked flights, hotels and full itineraries inside one conversation, with IATA accreditation
5. Scale: Davidson said tens of thousands of users planned more than $60 million in annualized travel over the summer
6. Status: The standalone service has shut down; existing bookings are handled through support, and OpenAI has announced no new travel product or plan