ANA Backs Avatar-in for Its Virtual Vacation Tech: Travel Startup Funding This Week
Photo Credit: Examples of the Avatar-in robot at an exhibition of the artworks of Katsuhiko Hibino at the 21_21 Design Sight museum in Tokyo. Avatar-in
Skift Take
All Nippon Airways has invested in Avatar-in, a startup that lets travelers use remote-controlled robots to see experiences far from them. Meanwhile, Eddy Travels, a digital booking assistant, has raised funding, too, despite the crisis. Keep hope alive.
Travel Startup Funding This Week
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.
This week, travel startups announced about $3 million in funding.
>>Avatar-in, a startup that offers remote-controlled avatars, has launched. All Nippon Airways (ANA) has participated in a $1.8 million (200 million yen) seed round in the Tokyo-based company, founded by two ANA employees.
CORRECTION: This article originally misspelled the name of All Nippon Airways.
In tests, users can remotely control the robots that are at tourism sites, museums, or other locations, seeing what the machines see via video monitors. In one example,
