YGO, Berlin-based travel tech, secures €8 million for AI platform expansion

YGO Secures €8 Million Investment for AI Expansion

Berlin-based startup YGO has successfully completed a Series A funding round, securing €8 million to advance its artificial intelligence infrastructure for the travel sector. The investment round was led by Ventech, with additional participation from Sake Bosch, Caesar, and other business angels.

This capital injection follows a previous €2.5 million funding round in August 2024, which was headed by GetAway Group. Founded in 2023 by Julian Kögel, Sebastian Kreutzberger, and Willi Ibbeken, YGO aims to bridge the gap between existing travel technology and the emerging ecosystem of AI agents.

The fresh funds will be directed towards expanding the company's market reach and sales operations, enhancing its AI orchestration platform, and growing its client base beyond the DACH region to include both enterprise and mid-sized travel businesses.

Integrating Travel Inventory with AI Agents

YGO’s core offering is an AI infrastructure layer designed to connect various travel companies, including tour operators, online travel agencies, and traditional travel agencies, directly with inventory from airlines, hotels, and tour providers. This integration occurs without requiring companies to overhaul their existing booking systems.

The platform achieves this by structuring and enriching fragmented hotel and product data, providing the necessary depth and accuracy for AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to reliably discover, compare, and recommend travel products.

Its content enrichment product automatically generates verified, structured hotel data, delivering it across a company’s digital channels and to external AI assistants via Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Additionally, YGO offers a Hotel Q&A product, embedding an AI-powered question-and-answer layer directly onto hotel websites, allowing travellers to receive real-time, verified answers in their own language.

Demonstrated Efficiency and Market Shift

The startup reports significant operational efficiencies for its clients, which include major European travel entities such as Condor, Bentour, and GetAway Group. For one airline client, YGO’s collaboration led to a 90% reduction in manual operations and a 20% improvement in conversion rates.

Another client saw a 2.4x increase in average order value without needing additional staff. YGO states that its platform has processed over €15 million in bookings to date and has achieved seven-figure recurring annual revenue within six months.

This growth comes as the industry seeks to counter the traditional intermediary role of online travel agencies and metasearch platforms, which YGO indicates capture between 15% and 25% of each booking. AI assistants are increasingly becoming the initial touchpoint for travel planning and booking, prompting suppliers to seek direct customer engagement.

Implications for Asia's Travel Sector

The shift towards AI-driven booking infrastructure, as championed by YGO, presents a significant development for the global travel industry, including markets across Asia.

While YGO's current expansion focuses beyond the DACH region, the underlying trend of suppliers reclaiming direct customer relationships through AI is highly relevant to Asian airlines, hotel groups, and tour operators. Many Asian travel businesses still rely on established online travel agency channels, which can limit direct engagement and incur commission costs.

The success of AI-powered solutions in Europe could encourage similar adoption in Asia, particularly for companies looking to enhance conversion rates and reduce operational expenditure, mirroring the 90% manual operations reduction seen by YGO’s airline client.

As AI assistants gain traction among travellers globally, Asian industry players will need to assess how they can integrate such technologies to maintain competitiveness and foster direct customer connections.