"With significant advancements in natural language understanding capabilities, robust travel API capabilities, and soaring consumer adoption of AI, Otto is poised to fundamentally alter the travel industry with an entirely novel experience," Fridgen wrote in a blog post. Hugh Crean, former CEO of Farecast, is an investor in Otto. Other backers include Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia, and Barney Harford, former CEO of Orbitz and a current board member at United Airlines. Direct Travel, a corporate travel management company acquired by Madrona and others in April, also invested in the seed round.