Paris Hilton Backs New AI Trip Planner

02.12.2023 - 00:14 / skift.com / Paris Hilton / Justin Dawes / New Ai

Seven travel tech startups have raised more than $171 million over the past two weeks. 

>>Layla, a new generative AI trip planner app, has announced its launch and a seed fundraise of $3.3 million (€3 million).

Investors include Paris Hilton, Booking.com co-founder Andy Phillips, and Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith. The funding round was led by Firstminute Capital, which was established by Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, as well as the fund M13.

Users can access the trip planner chatbot through the Apple and Android apps, or by messaging the Instagram account @justasklayla.

Berlin-based Layla said that the chatbot can deliver a personalized travel plan following a series of prompts and responses. The itinerary could include relevant videos and information about accommodations, flight prices, cultural insights, and weather. The app also enables users to book flights and lodging through Skyscanner and Booking.com.

The startup said the chatbot is informed in part by social media-based travel content, which is where many younger travelers turn to get travel advice. 

Layla was created by Jeremy Jauncey, founder of travel media brand Beautiful Destinations, and Saad Saeed, co-founder of European grocery delivery service Flink. 

“Travel discovery has been broken for decades,” Jauncey said in a statement. “People today get inspired by short-form videos on social media first and foremost, but there is no way to turn this inspiration into a trip. We want to help users discover the perfect places by bridging the gap between social media, planning and booking.”

ZeroAvia, which is developing a hydrogen-electric jet engine, has raised $116 million in series C funding.

It was led by the UK Infrastructure Bank, with support from previous co-leads Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, and NEOM Investment Fund, as well as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Alaska Airlines, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Summa Equity, AP Ventures, and Amazon Climate Pledge Fund. 

ZeroAvia has now raised over $256 million, according to Crunchbase. The latest funding amount, in September, was undisclosed. 

Headquartered in the UK and California, ZeroAvia said it is developing hydrogen-electric engines that use hydrogen in fuel cells to generate electricity. That electricity is then used to power motors that turn the aircraft’s propellers, with water being the only byproduct during flight.

The company is focusing first on engines that support a 300-mile range in aircrafts of nine to 19 seats by the end of 2025. The next focus is on engines that support a range of up to 700 miles in aircrafts with 40-80 seats by 2027. The company said it has signed engineering partnerships with major aircraft manufacturers and