London based TravelTech startup Vuelo has raised €64 million (£56 million) in Seed funding to expand its AI-native travel booking platform, enabling customers to discover, book, finance, and plan through a single intelligent experience.
The round includes €6.9 million (£6 million) in equity funding led by Backed VC and Play Ventures, alongside €57 million (£50 million) in debt financing provided by Viola Credit.
Jasper Dykes, Founder and CEO of Vuelo, says: “General purpose BNPL operators have brought greater flexibility to everyday spending, particularly in online retail and lower-ticket purchases. Yet travel, one of the world’s most meaningful and aspirational categories, has remained underserved by solutions that reflect how people actually plan and pay for their trips.
“Vuelo is different because we’re not bolting credit onto a booking engine or AI onto a payments product. We’re building a single platform which offers discovery, booking, financing, and in-trip support. Our AI understands the traveller, the trip, and the risk profile simultaneously – which is what allows us to approve customers that traditional BNPL’s decline.”
Vuelo’s Seed round can be positioned alongside other travel and travel-adjacent deals such as Hotiday in Milan, which raised €5.5 million to expand its destination portfolio and accommodation partnerships, chatlyn in Vienna, which secured €8 million to develop its AI communications platform for hotels, Tryp.com in Copenhagen, which raised €3.1 million to scale its AI travel planning platform, and GeniusTravel in Amstelveen, which announced €2 million to roll out its AI-powered travel packages app.
Collectively, those four travel-focused rounds amount to about €18.6 million, which places Vuelo’s reported €64 million Seed financing at a materially larger scale than most recent rounds in adjacent travel software and booking infrastructure.
“With this funding round, we’re accelerating our vision: Vuelo becomes the AI companion that makes travel possible – not just more convenient, but genuinely possible – for the people who’ve always wanted to go but never quite made it work financially. We’re delighted to be joined by world-class investors in Backed VC, Play Ventures, and Viola Credit, whose support reflects the scale of the opportunity ahead,” adds Jasper.
Founded in 2025 by Jasper Dykes and Edgars Kohs, Vuelo is an integrated travel booking and payments platform that allows customers to book holidays, hotels, flights, and experiences and spread the cost over interest free, flexible instalments lasting from three to twelve months.
Vuelo’s platform replaces the traditional search bar with its proprietary AI engine, which the company says “understands travel context in a way no generic booking tool can“: a family with school-age children needs half-term availability; a solo traveller who previously booked Barcelona will appreciate a recommendation for Valencia; a customer who books six months ahead is a candidate for early-booking savings nudges.
Critically, every trip recommendation arrives with a personalised payment plan already embedded. Vuelo’s proprietary risk engine runs in the background before the customer sees a single travel option. Rather than showing a headline price with financing as an afterthought, Vuelo presents the trip as it is actually experienced: “Barcelona, 5 nights, £74 per month over 6 months.”
Vuelo’s planned in-trip AI assistant makes recommendations for restaurants, experiences, and day trips that match their tastes and budget. Customer preferences feed back into Vuelo’s personalisation and risk engines.
Behind the scenes, the same intelligence that powers trip recommendations also handles customer support, manages refunds, and helps customers stay on top of their finances.
Andre de Haes, Backed VC, shares: “Vuelo is a genuine travel disruptor with a unique proposition. The company has already shown strong traction, onboarding thousands of new travellers each month, and we’re excited to be backing Vuelo as it targets significant growth in 2026. Big data and AI are disrupting numerous industries and, with a sophisticated ability to risk-assess and underwrite, Vuelo promises significant innovation in the travel sector. We look forward to working with Jasper and the team as we target further growth and funding.”
According to data provided by Vuelo, BNPL already accounts for 5% of e-commerce spend globally, worth €295 billion ($342 billion) today, and is projected to reach €500 billion ($580 billion) by 2030 (9% CAGR). Travel however, one of the most resilient categories, combining high transaction values, collateralised purchases, and digital native infrastructure, remains underserved by purpose-built credit solutions that reflect how people actually plan and book their trips.
Platforms such as Google, Booking.com, and Expedia can recommend trips but cannot finance them. BNPL providers can split a payment at checkout but cannot recommend, personalise, or dynamically structure the trip. Vuelo looks to position itself as the only end to end experience in the UK market, unifying everything a traveller might need in a single product.
Neha Mittal, MD, Head of Europe at Viola Credit, adds: “Vuelo is addressing a large, underserved customer segment and a clear need for travel BNPL, particularly as the cost of holidays has risen significantly since the pandemic. We’re thrilled to support the Vuelo team from day one and to provide the financing capacity needed to fuel their growth and scaling ambitions across the UK and US.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/03/vuelo-secures-e64-million-in-seed-funding-to-build-an-ai-native-travel-booking-experience/
