TikTok meets AI: Unravel raises $7M for a completely new travel booking experience, backed by former Booking.com executives

Travel planning has traditionally been fragmented and time-consuming, forcing users to juggle multiple platforms for inspiration, itinerary creation, and bookings. Traditional platforms also lack engaging content, making destination discovery difficult. Unravel addresses these challenges by offering one integrated app that combines immersive travel videos with seamless itinerary planning and booking, streamlining the entire process.

Today, this AI-powered video commerce platform has secured $7M in Series A funding. Nauta Capital, one of Europe’s leading B2B software investors, led the round, joined by Active Partners, Slingshot Ventures (whose largest LP is Kees Koolen, former CEO and Chairman of Booking.com), and Olivier Bisserier (former CFO, Booking.com).

Additional investors include Antler, Nodes, Upscalers, Brook Bay Capital, and The Players Fund (backed by sports icons Ben Stokes, KL Rahul, and Jessica Ennis-Hill). Many are returning investors, demonstrating their continued confidence in Unravel’s vision and growth.

This investment will enable Unravel to enhance its AI capabilities for video-commerce conversions and grow its London-based team. To drive global expansion, the company recruits top-tier talent in AI/ML, enterprise partnerships, and digital commerce from leading travel tech, banking, and AI-driven commerce companies.

The “TikTok of Travel”: turning creator content into travel bookings

Unravel was co-founded by Abhimanyu Dasgupta, Vijay Anand, and Abhimanyu Dasgupta in 2020. CEO Anand brings expertise in scaling startups and implementing AI-driven solutions to enhance user experiences. The platform enables banks, airlines, fintechs, and telcos to transform creator-driven travel content into seamless transactions. The founding team combines decades of experience building AI products for banks, telcos, insurers, and airlines.

Unravel was born from the observation that today’s travelers, inspired by TikTok and Instagram, desire visually captivating, shareable experiences but struggle to find a platform that merges video-driven discovery with easy planning and booking. Nowadays, they start their travel journeys with video content rather than searches. They draw inspiration from creators who showcase genuine experiences on platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok. Unravel leverages AI to turn these moments into bookable options.

“The way people discover travel has changed. They don’t sift through endless search results — they get inspired by creators who are exploring the world and sharing their experiences. Unravel bridges that gap, turning creator-shot videos into seamless, AI-powered booking experiences,” said Vijay Anand, CEO & Co-Founder of Unravel.

Unravel aims to revolutionise travel discovery by eliminating barriers between inspiration and exploration. Combining shoppable videos, AI personalisation, and an immersive interface transforms how people discover, plan, and book trips. The goal is to create a more authentic, accessible, and engaging travel planning experience for a generation that thrives on visual content.

How Unravel powers banks, airlines and telcos to become travel retailers

The platform collaborates with some of the world’s most influential travel creators, curating authentic, high-quality video content that inspires wanderlust. From luxury Maldives villas to hidden Bangkok street food markets, Unravel converts video discovery into seamless transactions — directly within bank apps, airline loyalty programs, or fintech marketplaces.

Banks, airlines, telcos, and insurers are eager to integrate travel into their ecosystems to generate new revenue and boost engagement. Unravel’s white-label API lets partners launch creator-powered travel discovery features in days rather than years. Its dynamic pricing engine achieves 82% accuracy in predicting optimal discount timing while offering group trip payment splitting.

The platform currently serves leading banks, insurers, and telecom operators across Asia and the Middle East and is actively expanding into Europe and the UK. Partners have experienced a fourfold increase in daily active users and a tenfold boost in conversion rates.

“The rise of TikTok has had a massive influence on the way people experience content on mobile. That change has happened in parallel with banks, insurers and telcos adding travel to their list of perks or products offered to customers. Unravel has combined both of these market changes, with the addition of an AI booking assistant, to produce an incredibly popular white-label solution for customers looking to add new revenue streams. Now the team is looking to expand across Europe and all of us at Nauta are so excited to support that journey,” said Carles Ferrer, General Partner at Nauta.

“I’ve been advising the leadership team of Unravel for over a year now. I’ve seen their vision, their execution and I believe what they’re building is truly the future of travel. That’s why I’ve invested,” concluded Olivier Bisserier, Former CFO, Booking.com.

Source: https://techfundingnews.com/