Skift Take

Tailbox is the latest generative AI startup in travel to raise venture capital, this time with a future vision to provide travelers with a personal digital tour guide.

Series: Startups This Week

Travel Startup Funding This Week

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.

Four travel tech startups have announced nearly $12 million in funding over the past week.

>>Tailbox, a startup developing a platform for personalized tours powered by generative AI, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Link Ventures.

The startup was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Bayazid Malikov and Eduardo Schuch as they were working on master’s degrees. The funding comes after a summer participating in the institute’s Delta V accelerator program, according to a blog post by Malikov published on Medium.

Malikov stated that Tailbox is developing an AI-powered platform meant to act as a digital tour guide that accommodates individual interests, such as history, food, architecture, or folklore. 

The startup is working with local agencies to build out data for specific areas, with the goal of helping travelers find “lesser-known treasures.”

“Imagine walking through Rome and receiving a real-time, AI-generated narrative about the Colosseum tailored