The acquisition appears to be an acqui-hire, though neither company has described it that way publicly. Davidson said he will help OpenAI work on the future of travel. Odessia raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia and launched its travel agent about five months ago. Davidson said the year-old startup had helped early users plan travel worth millions of dollars; the service has since been shut down.
OpenAI has not announced travel-specific products or plans. It counts Booking.com, Expedia and KAYAK among its customers or partners, and named travel as a potential use for its ChatGPT agent when it launched the product in July 2025. OpenAI had not responded to a request for comment.
Davidson founded Sonder in 2014 while he was a college student. The company leased upscale apartments in major cities worldwide, in a business compared with Airbnb. Sonder went public through a SPAC after the pandemic hurt its business, but Davidson later said it did not raise as much money as it needed. He resigned as CEO in June 2025. After a key partnership with Marriott fell through, Sonder entered bankruptcy and wound down.
In 2026, Sonder’s bankruptcy trustee sold its name, trademarks and website domain to TravelAI. The site now serves as a curated guide to the kind of rental properties Sonder had offered. Before its collapse, Sonder had reached unicorn status and generated $143 million in revenue. OpenAI’s acquisition brings in a founder with deep experience in travel, though the company has not said what role that background will play in its plans.
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