#70 - Air Taxis, Delivery Drones & Service Robots
Techne Times Issue #70
ACCOMMODATION TECH
03/12/2026
Sunday raises $165M at $1.15B valuation to launch Memo household robot
Helpful home robots startup Sunday Inc. announced that it has raised $165M in Series B funding on a $1.15B valuation to scale up research and begin real-world deployment of its Memo home robot. Founded in 2023, Sunday is developing autonomous robots that are designed to perform routine household tasks by combining AI with physical manipulation systems. The company’s approach focuses on allowing robots to operate in real home environments where objects, layouts and tasks vary widely. Sunday does so by collecting large volumes of real-world task data and using that data to train models capable of executing everyday activities such as handling dishes, clearing surfaces and organizing items. Sunday previously raised $35M in November. The new funding takes the total amount raised to $200M.
03/16/2026
Hyatt Hotels Expands AI Strategy With ChatGPT App and Natural-Language Search
As generative AI begins to influence how travelers research and book trips, Hyatt Hotels is making a more visible push into conversational search and AI-assisted discovery. On Hyatt’s February earnings call, President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said the company has spent the last two years on what he described as “AI enablement,” and that some of the clearest results are now showing up in how travelers search for hotels. Hyatt’s strategy also extends beyond its own website. The company recently launched a Hyatt-branded application within the ecosystem of ChatGPT, allowing travelers to explore Hyatt hotels directly through conversational prompts.
11/20/2025
Hilton rolls out AI trip-planning tool
Hilton has launched a beta version of its generative artificial intelligence (AI) powered trip planner to help travelers find hotels. Formally called the “Hilton AI Planner,” the tool uses conversational intelligence throughout the planning phase. Travelers can use natural language to explore Hilton’s global portfolio of hotels, compare properties and learn more about amenities. IHG partnered with Google on AI trip-planning capabilities as well. During its earnings call last month, the company called this capability a “key step in moving toward a more conversational search experience” on IHG websites and apps.
03/04/2026
Canary Technologies unveils hospitality-specific AI Agent Studio for hotels
Hotel tech group Canary Technologies has introduced Hospitality AI Agent Studio, a new tool designed for building and deploying AI agents tailored to the hospitality sector. The company said the platform enables hotel operators to create agents that meet their operational requirements, either by adjusting pre-designed templates such as Front Desk and Concierge or by developing new solutions.
03/04/2026
Winford Resort & Casino Manila Philippines Deploys Agilysys Hospitality Technology to Elevate Operations and Service
Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of hospitality technology solutions, announced that Winford Resort & Casino Manila Philippines, has deployed Agilysys InfoGenesis POS to centralize food and beverage operations across 11 venues and integrate in real time with their Total Rewards System (TRS). To support this high-volume environment, Winford transitioned from legacy POS systems requiring manual processes to a fully automated platform aligned with the technology standards of Newport World Resorts.
03/04/2026
Lighthouse introduces ChatGPT app for direct hotel booking
Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered commercial operating system Lighthouse has launched The Hotels Network app, offering direct booking for hotels inside ChatGPT. The app is powered by Lighthouse’s Connect AI engine, open to all hotels including chains, groups and independent properties. Lighthouse acquired The Hotels Network last April for an undisclosed sum. "AI is the biggest shift in how travelers plan their trips and discover hotels since Google," said Juanjo Rodriguez, head of direct booking at Lighthouse, adding that online travel agencies (OTAs) have already made the leap to AI discovery.
12/05/2025
Aven Hospitality, Hovr partner to integrate immersive video technology that drives 40% lift in conversions
Aven Hospitality is integrating Hovr’s dynamic video technology into its booking engine to offer hotels immersive video at checkout and support an AI-discoverable, agentic booking landscape. Hovr tracks engagement rate, views, click-through rate, watch time, time to checkout, conversion rate and influenced revenue to quantify performance. Travelers who watch a Hovr video are five times more likely to book, with 95% converting within 15 minutes; A/B tests show roughly a 40% lift in conversions and 32% increase in revenue. Aven is also investing in payments and retailing to become a commerce hub for hoteliers.
TRAVEL & MOBILITY TECH
03/20/2026
Amazon Acquires General Physical AI Robotics Startup Rivr, Valued at $100M in Last Funding Round
Amazon has acquired Zurich-based general physical AI startup Rivr, which builds autonomous four-wheeled, stair-climbing delivery robots for last‑mile logistics in dense urban areas. Rivr had raised around $25M to date, including a $22.2M round in 2024 backed by the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Bezos Expeditions, and was last valued at $100M. CEO Marko Bjelonic said the deal will accelerate Rivr’s vision of building General Physical AI for front‑door delivery and bring robotics and AI closer to real‑world deployment at scale.
03/16/2026
Atlys raises $36M in Series C funding led by Susquehanna Asia VC
New Delhi-based visa processing platform Atlys raised $36M in a Series C funding round led by Susquehanna Asia VC. Existing investors Elevation Capital, Long Journey Ventures, and Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) participated in the round. MakeMyTrip joined as a new investor. The company also plans to expand regulatory integrations and partnerships to support visa access. The company said it has processed about 450,000 visas since its previous funding round. It also reported 11-fold growth since its Series B in 2024.
03/11/2026
Bilt: $30M Acquisition Of Sion To Expand Travel Rewards Ecosystem
Bilt, the membership platform focused on housing and residential experiences, announced it has acquired the travel commission management platform Sion for $30M. The acquisition strengthens Bilt’s travel rewards offering by providing infrastructure that supports thousands of travel advisors serving its growing membership base. Sion provides commission reconciliation and management software for the travel industry. The platform currently manages more than $7B in travel booking revenue and supports 8,000+ travel advisors. The company’s system helps travel businesses reconcile commissions, automate invoice follow-ups, and streamline payments, achieving an 85% invoice follow-up success rate.
03/17/2026
MakeMyTrip Ponders IPO in India
MakeMyTrip (MMT) is considering a listing of MakeMyTrip India in the country as part of its long-term growth objectives. The India-based OTA, which listed on the Nasdaq in 2010, recently completed an internal restructure bringing brands operating in India under a single entity. MMT said a potential listing could unlock additional capital for growth. MMT reported an 11% increase in revenue to $296M in the fiscal third quarter of 2026. The OTA’s operating profit reached almost $51M. Gross bookings increased nearly 12% year over year, while adjusted net profit totaled $51M, a $6.5M year-over-year increase.
03/11/2026
Uber teams up with Zoox in latest robotaxi partnership
Autonomous vehicle (AV) company Zoox has partnered with Uber to launch robotaxis on the Uber app. This marks Zoox’s first partnership with a third-party platform like Uber. The companies intend to launch robotaxis in Las Vegas this summer, with plans to launch additional vehicles in Los Angeles by mid-2027. Once enabled, Uber users will see the option to match with a Zoox robotaxi for eligible trips. Zoox, which was acquired by Amazon in 2020, will continue to offer its rides through its app as well. Currently, Zoox robotaxis trips are free in Las Vegas and select neighborhoods in San Francisco.
03/13/2026
Google Maps gets biggest update in a decade, powered entirely by Gemini
Google has launched a conversational interface and updated navigation features in Maps, both powered by Gemini. With Ask Maps, travelers can use natural language to ask questions about recommended scenic stops on the way to a destination or to identify something specific. After identifying a location, users can save the destination, navigate to it or book restaurant reservations. The second update, Immersive Navigation, includes visual and functional updates to Google Maps and marks the largest update in over a decade. The map “comes to life” with a 3D view of buildings, overpasses and terrain. This improves confidence while traveling, with Gemini models analyzing data to highlight crosswalks, stop signs and additional details along the route. It also provides travelers more intuitive directions, clearer alternative routes and better arrival context, including parking and entrance views.
03/17/2026
Capital One launches standalone travel app, brings tech in-house
Capital One has launched a standalone Capital One Travel mobile app for cardholders to book flights, hotels, cars, vacation rentals and activities, redeem rewards and track trips in real time. The app brings in-house technology and capabilities previously developed with Hopper Technology Solutions over the past four years, including licenses, servicing contracts and supplier relationships. Moving the technology in-house will enable "deeper personalization, tighter integration across planning and in-transit moments and a more seamless end-to-end travel experience," Capital One said. Capital One remains an investor in Hopper and plans to integrate Brex’s spend management platform to grow business travel revenue.
03/19/2026
RateGain and Juspay launch RG Pay for travel payments
RateGain Travel Technologies, a global provider of AI-powered SaaS solutions for the travel and hospitality industry, has announced a strategic partnership with Juspay, a payments technology company, to power RG Pay, an embedded FinTech platform designed for the travel and hospitality sector. The partnership aims to drive higher checkout conversions, expand localized payment options, and deliver scalable booking experiences for travelers worldwide.
12/02/2025
Indonesia’s online travel market eyes $17B future
Indonesia’s digital landscape is moving fast, and travel is at the very heart of this evolution. As a sneak peek of the new Indonesia Explored report, part of the Online Travel Tracker series, WiT is diving into how local online travel agencies (OTAs) are not just defending their home turf but are now eyeing regional dominance. Indonesia’s digital economy was valued at $99B in 2025 (per Google e-Conomy SEA) and is on a trajectory to hit between $180 and $340B by 2030. Within that, online travel is a major engine, expected to nearly double from $9B in 2025 to $17B by 2030.
02/19/2026
Loyalty API Platform Odynn Secures $9.5M
Odynn has raised $9.5M in a seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures and co-led by Fiat Ventures. Describing itself as “AI Shopify for loyalty and travel,” New York-based Odynn is an AI platform that provides APIs for financial services companies to launch embedded loyalty, travel and rewards programs. The company said the funding will be used to accelerate go-to-market efforts, build its engineering and data science teams and “deepen integrations” with both card networks and loyalty programs.
03/12/2026
Electric air taxi plans advance in the U.S.
Electric air taxi developers Joby Aviation and Archer plan to deploy aircraft in multiple U.S. states as part of a federal pilot program designed to test how electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles operate in real-world conditions. The eVTOL Integration Pilot Program aims to accelerate regulatory progress and infrastructure development by facilitating early operations as advanced air mobility aircraft are integrated into the national airspace. The company plans to establish infrastructure and local capabilities ahead of flights, set to begin in the second half of 2026. The effort is expected to provide operational experience and increase public exposure to the technology.
03/09/2026
MakeMyTrip to expand packages through Flamingo Transworld acquisition
India-based online travel agency MakeMyTrip (MMT) has acquired a majority stake in tour operator Flamingo Transworld, subject to certain closing conditions. The acquisition will complement MMT’s holiday packages business and help drive its growth across India. Revenue for the hotels and packages business increased almost 15% to $133M for the three months ended December 31, 2025.
02/13/2026
Ramp acquires guest travel platform Juno
Spend management platform Ramp has acquired guest travel startup Juno, with plans to have it operate independently within Ramp while supporting its own travel offering capabilities, the companies announced Monday. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Juno - developed by Devon Tivona and Sam Felsenthal, the founders of guest travel management app Pana - launched last year as a solution for coordinating, booking and managing guest travel. Over that time, it’s announced attracting $6 million in funding and broadened its focus to tackle “complex travel” uses cases outside of guest travel, including meetings management capabilities.
02/27/2026
Holidu acquires German vacation rental platform Bestfewo.de
European vacation rental company Holidu has acquired German vacation rental portal Bestfewo.de for an undisclosed amount. Bestfewo will continue to operate independently under its brand name, but the platform will be integrated into Holidu’s software system, which will handle site operations. The companies said the deal doesn’t involve a corporate merger.
02/27/2026
Travel Token Marketplace acquires Camino Network initiator Chain4Travel
Travel Token Marketplace (TTM), which turns travel vouchers into digital tokens, has acquired Chain4Travel, developer of Web3 infrastructure the Camino Network. With Chain4Travel’s integration, the companies said TTM will become a platform that streamlines innovation, modernizes payments and improves digital value creation for the travel sector. After building the decentralized infrastructure with the Camino Blockchain and the innovative Messenger protocol, the logical evolution is stepping into the user application field,” Castillo said. While TTM will take on Chain4Travel’s responsibilities and rights with respect to the Camino Network, the network will remain decentralized.
03/11/2026
Agentic AI could do for travel what Amazon did for online shopping
Travel disruption is inevitable. It is also more common and far more costly than many realize. According to recent research from Perk (formerly TravelPerk), costs related to disruptions account for about 4% of annual business travel spend, costing U.S. companies roughly $17B annually. Agentic AI is the travel industry’s moment to shine, Corporate travel teams are increasingly using AI. A recent study found that over 90% of business travel managers are already using AI or generative AI in some capacity, mostly for reporting, traveler experience or savings analysis.
03/04/2026
Sabre Launches Groundbreaking AI-First Platform at ITB Berlin 2026: A New Era for Travel Technology
At ITB Berlin 2026, one of the world’s leading trade shows for travel and tourism, Sabre Corporation made a powerful statement by unveiling its AI-first platform. The highly anticipated launch marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of travel technology, setting the stage for the next generation of intelligent travel solutions. This cutting-edge platform, known as Sabre Mosaic, integrates artificial intelligence (AI) at its core, promising to reshape how the travel industry approaches retailing, operations, and customer service.
F&B TECH
03/12/2026
Chowbus raises $81M to broaden AI-driven services for restaurants
Restaurant technology company Chowbus has secured $81M in fresh funding in a round led by Prysm Capital and Left Lane Capital, with additional backing from Dutchess, Fika, and Avid Bank. It plans to use the funds to foray into the Canadian market. Founded in 2016, Chowbus provides restaurants with POS systems, integrated marketing and AI-driven tools. The startup also aims to shift from a pure SaaS model towards a more comprehensive service offering designed to lower administrative and operational burdens for restaurant owners. Chowbus said it generates more than $120M in annual recurring revenue, a ninefold increase over four years, and handles $4B in annualized transaction volume.
03/12/2026
SAGT to Acquire 60% Majority Stake in Fast-Growing F&B Chain Malaya Heritage, Expanding Revenue Base and Entering the Multi-Billion Global Restaurant Industry
Sagtec Global (NASDAQ: SAGT) signed a term sheet to acquire a 60% stake in Malaya Heritage for $3M ($1.8M via fixed price share issuance plus up to $1.2M earnout). Malaya Heritage reported combined FY2025 revenue of RM15,337,643.21 ($3,903,384.18). The company projects 70% revenue growth in 2026 from operational optimization, POS integration, and selective outlet expansion while vendor shares are subject to a 12 month lockup.
03/16/2026
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick launches robotics startup Atoms
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has launched Atoms, a robotics startup aimed at building specialized robots for industrial sectors including food, mining and transportation. According to TechCrunch, the new venture consolidates Kalanick’s existing ghost kitchen business CloudKitchens into a broader robotics-focused company. Atoms will develop a foundational “wheelbase” platform to power special large-scale industrial environments. Kalanick said the company intends to focus on robots designed for specific operational tasks rather than humanoid machines.
02/05/2026
Grubhub Introduces Drone-Powered Food Delivery Program
Grubhub is piloting a test program integrating Dexa‘s drone delivery service for customers ordering from a New Jersey food hall. Eligible customers within a 2.5-mile delivery radius of Wonder in Green Brook, N.J., can order Wonder through the Grubhub app and opt for drone delivery, beginning March 18. Wonder, a multi-restaurant model that allows diners to order multiple culinary options from a single location, acquired Grubhub in 2024.
03/02/2026
Tech firm unveils futuristic robot restaurant with no human staff and it could be the future of dining out
The fully automated servers will prepare your food and dish it out to you - no humans necessary. The innovation by China Mobile is being showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, where robots can be seen pouring drinks and selecting food from the fridge. If successful, eager diners could soon walk into restaurants and be shown to their table by an AI-powered server, before a robotic chef prepares their meal.
03/03/2026
Can Serve Robotics Convert 3,600 Restaurants Into Profitable Density?
Serve Robotics Inc. SERV is rapidly expanding its commercial footprint, but the real test lies in turning scale into sustainable profitability. With more than 3,600 restaurant locations in the United States signed across major platforms and enterprise partners, the company has established a sizable contracted pipeline. During the first nine months of 2025, SERV reported 8.1% year-over-year revenue growth, with a whopping 209.5% growth witnessed in the third quarter alone. This highlights a sharp increase in active robots and higher delivery volumes.
03/10/2026
A taste of what’s next: Perspectives on the future of restaurants
Automated kitchens, AI-powered hyper personalization, and “unbundled” formats are accelerating restaurant reinvention. In the years ahead, diners may start to experience their favorite restaurants in entirely new ways. Restaurant recommendations may start to come from consumers’ preferred gen AI platforms, human servers might get a helping hand from robotic food runners, and AI-powered recipe testing could catapult culinary innovation to greater heights. In these five videos, McKinsey experts examine how shifting consumer tastes, emerging technologies, and experimental formats could redefine the restaurant of the future.