Artificial intelligence-powered travel discovery and booking app Layla has received €3 million in funding.
Created by Beautiful Destinations’ Jeremy Jauncey and Flink’s Saad Saeed, Layla launched this month on the heels of its seed funding round, which was provided by the co-founders of Booking.com, Skyscanner and also celebrity and entrepreneur Paris Hilton.
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The platform works to enable users to discover, plan and book trips “seamlessly,” the company said in a release. Beyond standing on its own, the app harnesses the power of social media platform Instagram. To achieve seamless booking and planning, Layla users can communicate with the app’s AI-driven Instagram Travel Planner along with the app to “bridge the gap” between social media content and actual travel booking including flights and accommodations.
In practice, users begin by messaging directly with the Instagram Travel Planner @justasklayla. Through prompts and conversations, Layla responds with travel options. With support from large language models, Layla can act as a personalized travel planner, guiding users with visually bolstered itineraries with recommendations meant to suit the user. Layla is also meant to answer user questions on flight pricing, cultural insights and more.
Layla already boasts more than 400,000 followers, and the free Layla app is available to download on iOS and Android.