#60 - Tesla's Hospitality Play, AI Concierges, & Robotaxis on the Rise
Techne Times Issue #60
Accommodation Tech
Hospitality loyalty startup Journey raises $7.7M to fuel expansion: Journey, a loyalty platform for independent hotels and short-term rentals, has secured $7.7 million in seed funding. The startup said the capital “fuels the launch of a modern hotel loyalty program for consumers and an AI-enabled technology platform for hoteliers.” The funding round was co-led by venture capital firm Lerer Hippeau and Slow Ventures, with participation from The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly, Bulletpitch, Tory Burch co-founder Chris Burch and entrepreneur Kim Perrell. 08/04/2025 Read More
OYO acquires rental management platform MadeComfy: OYO has acquired property management company MadeComfy for $50 million. Sharing the news on LinkedIn, the Australia-based company said it had grown into “one of the largest short-term rental managers in Australia and New Zealand” since being founded in 2015. The company works with more than 1,500 property managers, helping them list and manage properties on platforms including Airbnb. 08/04/2025 Read More
Founder in focus: Asif Alidina’s Inntelo AI grabs over £500K for next-gen hospitality: Inntelo AI has raised $500K to supercharge hotel operations with AI from pricing strategies to guest satisfaction insights. With a decade of hotel industry experience and now angel backing, this startup is bridging the tech gap for independent hotels worldwide. For the UK-based startup Inntelo AI, the opportunity lies in utilising modern AI to streamline communication between guests and the team. 07/21/2025 Read More
Trivago Completes $32 Million Holisto Acquisition — and Why That Matters: Trivago is making AI search and booking improvements that could stick — if larger factors such as the ChatGPTs and Geminis, and other Google travel products don’t get in the way. Trivago issued its second quarter results Wednesday and we interviewed CEO Johannes Thomas via Zoom after the earnings call to learn why it upped its stake to 100% in hotel rate aggregator Holisto for $32 million. 08/07/2025 Read More
AI’s role in hospitality profitability and people: The rapid growth of AI and its potential to transform every aspect of hotel operations was the subject of a conversation among hospitality and technology experts at NYU IHIF 2025. The roundtable entitled The Future Checks In: AI’s role in hospitality profitability and people was hosted by accountancy firm PwC as it turned its attention to the latest technological revolution. 08/11/2025 Read More
United invests in Dfinitiv to unlock loyalty and media revenue: United Airlines Ventures (UAV), the corporate venture capital arm of United, has taken an equity stake in Dfinitiv, a loyalty commerce and media technology specialist. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the airline is exploring use cases of Dfinitiv’s technology across its loyalty program, MileagePlus, and its commerce media network, Kinective Media, which was unveiled a year ago. 08/08/2025 Read More
Inntelo AI secures £506K pre-seed to scale AI concierge platform: UK-based hospitality technology company Inntelo AI has raised more than £500,000 in a pre-seed funding round to fuel its commercial growth. It follows impressive early traction, with multiple hotels adopting its AI Concierge platform. The £506,000 round was led by venture capital fund Haatch and its partner British Business Bank, with participation from Look AI Ventures. The round also included support from several angel investors, including former executives from Trip.com, DocuSign, and others. It follows an earlier £120,000 investment from Antler, the world’s most active early-stage investor, at the company’s inception. 7/14/2025. Read More
The evolution of CRM in hotels: Penta Hotels has been undergoing a major technological transformation to create an integrated tech stack across its hotels. The overhaul of its property management system (PMS), point of sale and customer relationship management (CRM) system has been quite quick, according to Ksenia Tarasova, CRM and brand loyalty manager for Penta. 08/01/2025 Read More
Airbnb’s Brian Chesky: We’re Open to Partnering With AI Chatbots: Airbnb’s Brian Chesky is close to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, but that doesn’t mean that Airbnb will necessarily distribute its inventory through Altman’s ChatGPT. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday that it is still “feeling out” the possibility of working with the big AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which he called “an incredibly compelling product.” 08/07/2025 Read More
Travel Tech
RV rental company Roadsurfer lands €85 million for expansion: Camper van rental provider Roadsurfer has secured €85 million in funding. The Germany-based company said the capital will be used to “support rapid growth” and expand its fleet in North America and Europe. The two-part funding includes €60 million in asset-backed securities (ABS) financing from Macquarie Group and €25 million in venture debt financing from Spanish multinational financial services company BBVA. With the latest round, Roadsurfer’s funding totals €500 million. 08/06/2025 Read More
TurnStay Raises $2M to Scale Travel Payments Across Africa : South Africa-based fintech startup TurnStay has landed $2 million in its seed round. CEO and co-founder Alon Stern confirmed the news on LinkedIn. “Super excited to share TurnStay has raised its seed round led by First Circle Capital with participation from TLcom Capital LLP, Enza Capital, Incisive Ventures, CV VC and Equitable Ventures,” Stern wrote, also extending congratulations to his co-founder, James Hedley. Founded in 2021, TurnStay helps streamline payments for African travel companies, allowing them to take bookings from travelers all over the world with “country optimized checkout pages.” 08/07/2025 Read More
TourRadar unveils $1M fund to reward travelers and creators for content: TourRadar, a platform offering multiday experiences and adventure travel, has unveiled a $1 million fund to support creators in travel discovery. The fund, which is called RISE, is part of the company’s social commerce drive and will invest in “user-generated content, local expertise and community powered storytelling.” 08/07/2025 Read More
MakeMyTrip upgrades Myra AI assistant: India-based online travel agency MakeMyTrip (MMT) has launched a generative artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled trip planning assistant building on its Myra assistant, which was unveiled last year. The assistant aims to help travelers with every stage of trip planning using a conversational interface enabling both voice and text and is a “notable upgrade to the existing AI agent, Myra,” the company said. 08/07/2025 Read More
Can Technology Fully Replace the Human Element in Travel? Exploring the Balance Between Efficiency and Personal Touch in Modern Tourism with Insights from UAE: The increasingly globalized travel industry continues to evolve with novel ideas and advanced technologies, prompting the following question: Can the kindness and consideration from travel agents be replaced by machines? Services offered through the technology like virtual customer support and tailored travel schedules demonstrate that technology is changing the travel services to be more efficient, but the human connection is still needed. These changes have significant impacts on the travel and hospitality industries and how clients interface with the brands and explore the travel sites. 08/06/2025 Read More
Studies show the growing acceptance of digital wallets as travel payment solutions: Gen Z is helping to speed up the adoption of digital wallets, but some sectors are still holding out. Several global studies show that younger travellers are embracing the use of digital wallets as their primary mode of payment throughout their journeys. A recent study published by global payments infrastructure company TerraPay noted that real-time transactions using global wallets will account for around 27 percent of all global payments by 2028. 08/11/2025 Read More
Europe & UK Consumers Now Prefer Digital Wallets, BNPL for Travel Bookings, New Report Finds: While credit cards still dominate, especially in the U.S., travelers in Europe and the UK are increasingly choosing digital wallets and flexible options like “buy now, pay later”, and this preference is carrying over from general e-commerce into travel transactions. McKinsey reports that global wallets such as PayPal and Amazon now account for 55% of all online transactions in Europe, and CarTrawler’s Q2 2025 Market Monitor shows this same behavior is becoming more visible in travel, particularly car rentals and other travel products. 08/06/2025 Read More
Weighing in on the next generation of travel products and services around the world: With new technology emerging in travel, innovation is key to ensure customers receive the hyper-personalized service they seek. During an executive panel at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona in June, Emilie Dumont, CEO of France-based Digitrips, and Rajnish Kumar, director and group co-CEO of India-based online travel agency Ixigo, sat down to discuss the tech ties that bind different regions of the world and their predictions for the future. 08/01/2025 Read More
Lyft teams up with Baidu to launch robotaxis in Europe: Lyft has partnered with Chinese technology company Baidu to deploy Apollo Go autonomous vehicles (AVs) across Europe. The AVs will be available through the rideshare giant’s platform, and Lyft will also become Baidu’s first European rideshare partner. Just last month, Baidu announced a partnership with Uber to launch its Apollo Go AVs to global markets outside of the United States and China, namely Asia and the Middle East. 08/04/2025 Read More
AI & Airfares, Loyalty Program Trends, Travel Demand Outlook: Here are three of the most popular questions our answer engine Ask Skift 2.0 fielded recently. Why Is Using AI for Airfares Controversial? Delta Air Lines said during its most recent earnings call that it plans to use AI to price up to 20% of domestic fares by the end of the year. The backlash was swift. The concern is that Delta could leverage personal information — everything from browsing history and income to a personal crisis — to charge one passenger more than another. 08/05/2025 Read More
PhocusWire’s weekly travel tech news briefs: Casago, GuideGeek, Booking.com and more...: Corporate travel management company (TMC) Teplis Travel has partnered with Spotnana to launch a unified global travel platform powered by Spotnana Cloud for TMCs. BEONx has partnered with Micros South Africa, a division of Adapt IT, in an effort to expand access to artificial intelligence (AI)-powered revenue management tools to more hotels across South Africa’s hospitality sector and in the wider region. 08/01/2025 Read More
F&B Tech
Chipotle Rolls Out High-Efficiency Equipment and Automation Technologies to Optimize Kitchen Operations: Chipotle Mexican Grill is quietly accelerating the digital transformation of its kitchens with a strategic rollout of high-efficiency equipment and operational software, aiming to boost speed, consistency and capacity—especially as it pilots catering services and continues to expand its footprint. On its Q2 2025 earnings call, CEO Scott Boatwright outlined a purpose-built plan to modernize core kitchen operations. 08/01/2025 Read More
OpenTable Launches Embedded Concierge to Answer Diner Questions and Drive Restaurant Bookings: OpenTable has introduced Concierge, a generative AI–powered assistant designed to offer real-time, conversational insights into over 60,000 restaurants across its global network. The tool is embedded directly into restaurant profiles and enables diners to get answers to common pre-booking questions—what to order, whether a venue accommodates dietary needs, directions, ambiance, etc., without having to leave the booking experience. Upcoming capabilities reportedly include AI-powered reservation booking on behalf of diners. 07/28/2025 Read More
AmEx-Toast Strategic Partnership Boosts Hospitality Tech, Positions TOST 223rd in $510M Daily Trading Volume: Toast closed with a 0.72% decline, trading at $0.51 billion in volume—a 47.5% drop from the previous day. The stock ranked 223rd in trading activity. The move follows a strategic partnership with American Express AXP -0.78% (AXP), which aims to enhance hospitality services by integrating AmEx’s Resy and Tock reservation data into Toast’s hardware and software systems. 08/07/2025 Read More
Charting the Future: ALTA Foods Expands Automation to Strengthen Operations: ALTA Foods has been at the forefront of automation for a long time. The 18-year-old tortilla manufacturer has embraced automation as a way to boost throughput, reduce labor strain, and keep up with growing demand from major retailers. In fact, much of ALTA’s production line, from mixing to bagging, is already fully automated, making ALTA a standout in a niche industry where few have embraced technology this deeply. 08/04/2025 Read More
The kitchen is constantly changing and tech is making it a more comfortable space: Anshul Dhyani the executive chef at ITC Grand Central in Mumbai got into the hospitality industry purely by accident. From a family which has a lot of ties with the Indian defence forces, Dhyani got into hotel management while giving a multitude of entrance exams while waiting for his class 12 results and got into IHM Mumbai along with one of his closest friends who is also part of the industry currently. 08/07/2025 Read More
Tesla Opens Futuristic Diner That Blends EV Charging with Quick Service Dining: Tesla has made its official foray into hospitality with the opening of its first full-scale diner concept in Hollywood, California. Located on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and North Orange Drive, the new Tesla Diner is more than just a themed eatery. It represents a new kind of hybrid venue where fast-casual food, electric vehicle infrastructure, and experiential branding come together. While it may not resemble a traditional restaurant or chain prototype, the concept is attracting attention throughout the hospitality and restaurant technology sectors for what it suggests about the future of mobility-centric foodservice. 07/23/2025 Read More