Ventech leads €8M Series A in YGO, the AI layer between travel suppliers and ChatGPT-style agents

Berlin startup YGO has closed an €8 million Series A led by Ventech, with Sake Bosch, Caesar Capital and several business angels also in the round. The pitch is simple enough: help travel suppliers plug their inventory into AI instead of watching booking traffic flow through someone else’s interface.

That matters because online travel agencies and metasearch platforms still keep 15% to 25% of each booking. YGO says that model is getting shakier as customers move away from OTA websites and toward AI assistants. The company’s bet is that the real prize is not the screen the traveller sees, but the infrastructure underneath it.

YGO was founded in 2023 by Julian Kögel, Willi Ibbeken and Sebastian Kreutzberger. It takes hotel and product data, organises it for travel companies, and connects it to existing booking systems. That lets operators offer semantic search, personalised recommendations, automated customer service, and direct booking on their own platforms or through external AI assistants, without ripping out their current tech.

The company says its platform contains more than 5,000 verified facts for each hotel listing and feeds assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. It has around 10 customers, including Condor and Bentour, and says it has already processed more than €15 million in bookings. Annual recurring revenue has reached seven figures within six months, according to YGO.

The new money is earmarked for sales, go-to-market work and further platform development, plus turning its pipeline into confirmed accounts outside the DACH region. YGO is expanding across Europe and is negotiating with travel brands worldwide. That puts it squarely in the middle of a wider race: Expedia has bought Layla, Booking is building Vayo, and a growing list of startups are trying to own the AI layer of travel. YGO is taking the less glamorous route. It’s also the one suppliers may actually need.