YGO, a company developing an AI-powered platform connecting travel companies with airlines, hotels and tour operators, has raised €8 million in a Series A funding round led by Ventech, with participation from Sake Bosch, Caesar Capital and business angels.
Founded by Julian Kögel, Willi Ibbeken and Sebastian Kreutzberger, YGO provides AI infrastructure designed to help travel companies integrate AI-powered search, recommendations, customer service and booking capabilities into their existing systems. Its platform connects travel suppliers with both traditional booking channels and emerging AI assistants, allowing companies to offer their services without replacing their existing technology infrastructure.
YGO's platform uses AI to organise and structure fragmented hotel and travel product information, making it easier for AI systems to understand and process available offerings. This enables personalised recommendations, semantic search and automated booking processes across different travel services, including flights, accommodation and activities.
YGO aims to address the travel industry's reliance on intermediaries, including online travel agencies and metasearch platforms, which typically retain between 15 and 25 per cent of each booking.
By enabling travel companies to connect directly with AI-powered booking channels, the platform is designed to help suppliers maintain control over customer relationships and improve margins.
Travel is one of the last major industries still built on infrastructure that was never designed for an AI-first world. We built YGO to change that: to give the travel industry the infrastructure to make its inventory accessible, bookable and ready for AI – whether through their own platforms or through external AI agents,
said Julian Kögel, co-founder and CEO of YGO.
YGO processes bookings for European travel companies including Condor, Bentour and GetAway Group. The company reports that one airline customer recorded a 90 per cent reduction in manual operations and a 20 per cent increase in conversion rates, while another customer saw its average order value increase 2.4-fold without expanding its workforce.
The team has also been joined by Ralf Usbeck, founder of TravelTainment and Peakwork, who brings experience in developing technology infrastructure connecting major tour operators, airlines and hotel providers.
The new funding will be used to expand
YGO's sales and go-to-market activities, further develop its AI platform and
grow its customer base beyond the DACH region, targeting both enterprise
customers and mid-sized travel companies.