The Phocuswright Conference 2025 Launch Innovator: Acai Travel

Acai Travel, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2024, received the People’s Choice Award as part of Phocuswright’s Launch: Innovation program.

At The Phocuswright Conference in San Diego last week, co-founder and CEO Riccardo “Ricky” Vittoria shared highlights of Acai’s platform and its artificial intelligence (AI) agents built for travel management companies, online travel agencies and airlines.

During a presentation, Vittoria said that agentic AI will “shine” in the post-booking phase, and it’s where Acai has placed focus. The startup has built three agents, including an “AI supervisor” that oversees the call center, an AI front-office agent that speaks naturally with travelers and an AI back-office agent that understands airline policies, schedule changes, etc.

“When our customers deploy this team of AIs, they save 60% in handling time while still getting a 20- to 30-basis-point lift in CSAT. This means better customer service, half the cost,” Vittoria said.

“Imagine all these agents talking to each other to solve problems at scale. Imagine them solving every problem across the travel distribution chains. Now every time you need to change a flight, it’s going to work in a minute, not an hour, 100% of the time.”

In June, Acai attracted a minority investment form Amadeus, although the terms of the deal were not disclosed. The investment was made through Amadeus’ strategic funding program, Amadeus Ventures. In 2024, Acai raised $4 million in seed funding led by Nauta Capital.

As of October 2025, Phocuswright’s Innovation platform included 670 innovators that have raised a collective total of over $14 billion. You can learn more about Launch and view the alumni companies here.

See below for Acai’s full Launch presentation.

Vittoria also joined Mitra Sorrells, SVP of content for PhocusWire and Phocuswright, in the PhocusWire studio to discuss the company in more detail.