YGO raises €8M Series A to make travel inventory bookable by AI agents
What's the deal? Berlin-based YGODealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised €8 million in a Series A round led by VentechDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to help travel suppliers make their inventory accessible to AI agents. Sake BoschDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Caesar CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and several business angels also joined. The money will fund sales, go-to-market, and further development of its platform.
What's the endgame? YGO takes separate hotel and product data, organises it for travel companies, and plugs it into their existing booking systems. The result: tour operators can offer semantic search, personalised recommendations, and bookings on their own platforms or via external AI assistants without overhauling their technology.
Why now? Founder and chief executive officer Julian Kögel calls it an "app store moment for the travel industry." As he put it, travel still runs on "infrastructure which was never intended for a world where AI comes first."
What's the pitch? Online travel agencies and metasearch platforms typically retain 15% to 25% of every booking. YGO aims to lift supplier margins by letting them sell directly — about 10 customers currently use its platform to do so.
By the numbers: YGO was founded in 2023 by Kögel, Willi Ibbeken, and Sebastian Kreutzberger, and first launched as a consumer trip-planning app. It raised €2.5 million in August 2024 before pivoting from travelers to suppliers. The team has since grown to 20 people across the US, Africa, and Europe.
What could go wrong? YGO is betting on infrastructure before demand is proven. Industry reporting says AI referrals and bookings remain a small share of travel activity, and the company's customer and booking traction is still early and self-reported.
The signal: The round sits in roughly the 59th percentile by size — a sizeable European bet on the supplier-side AI layer. As ExpediaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → buys LaylaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Booking builds its own agent, Vayo, most money is chasing consumer-facing trip planners; YGO is wagering that suppliers will need their own AI plumbing first.
Read more: EU-Startups
Image credit: YGO
