AI-powered travel agency Fora hits unicorn status, raises $60M
Travel agency Fora announced a $60 million Series D round led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures, valuing the company at $1 billion. The company plans to expand its AI assistant Via to free human agents from administrative tasks.
Funding Round and Valuation
Travel agency Fora, founded in 2021, has announced a $60 million Series D funding round. The round was led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures, and the company is now valued at $1 billion, achieving unicorn status. Other investors in this round include Insight Partners and Thrive Capital. Total funding to date stands at $138.5 million.
Platform and AI Assistant Development
Fora operates a two-part platform: it allows people to easily become travel agents by providing infrastructure for client communication and travel planning, and it also enables users to find and communicate with advisors for planning trips such as honeymoons or family vacations to destinations like Costa Rica or Thailand.
Part of the new capital will go toward expanding Fora’s AI assistant, Via. Via helps travel agents on the platform with time-consuming administrative tasks like research and itinerary building. The company hopes that human agents can instead spend more time building client relationships, and that using AI will augment human productivity rather than replace it.
Achievements and Future Plans
Since its launch, agents on the platform have booked over $3 billion worth of travel, with the majority of agent users being new to travel advising. The company also aims to use the funding to hire and grow in other travel categories, such as cruises and flights.
