Flyr raises $10 million for AI that helps airlines predict fares

Flyr, a company developing data analytics products that forecast airfare volatility, today revealed (via an interview with Kambr Media) that it has raised over $10 million in second-round funding. The fresh capital brings the company’s total raised to roughly $25 million, and Flyr CTO and cofounder Alexander Mans says it will be used to promote research and development, expedite product updates, and expand the company’s workforce of 85 employees.

Flyr, which Mans cofounded in 2013 with Cyril Guiraud and Jean Tripier, launched with a consumer focus and is currently based in Poland and San Francisco. Much like Hopper, Volantio, Kayak, Google Flights, and other real-time airline booking services on the market, it tracked fares to highlight optimal booking times based on factors like price and availability and let travelers lock in the price of an airline ticket for a one-time fee of about $20. But several years ago, Flyr began pivoting to a strictly enterprise model, which culminated in the launch of its FusionRM suite of predictive airfare tools.

FusionRM — which operates in private clouds, hybrid clouds, fully managed clouds, and on-premises systems — integrates with over 30 legacy systems to standardize and correlate all of an air carrier’s historical and real-time data, including flight schedules, fare structures, seat maps, seat availabilities, competitor pricing, web analytics, ancillary sales, fare filings, and promotional calendars. It leverages machine learning to anticipate customers’ willingness to pay for in-air and non-air products and services, enabling Flyr’s customers to calculate pricing for products dynamically and even combine them into bundles likely to boost conversions.

Above: Flyr’s cloud-based dashboard.

Image Credit: Flyr

FusionRM’s real-time continuous pricing also takes into account “all circumstances” at the time of a shopping request, such as market conditions, the sales channel, and behaviors associated with the buyer. It optionally adjusts by channel market or customer segment automatically, and it enables managers to tweak the aggressiveness of its price generation and correct for individual customer preferences.

Somewhat novelly, FusionRM doesn’t operate using fare classes. Instead, its dynamic pricing micro-adjusts by as little as a single cent at up to 200 different price points. Additionally, through a bespoke inventory component — Synthetic Inventory — it’s able to manage and orchestrate things like fare rules, as well as amenities like priority lane, food and beverages, Wi-Fi, and other products.

Flyr counts four carrier clients among its customer base, including full-service carriers in the U.S., Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. Previous and existing Flyr backers include Peter Thiel, JetBlue Technology Ventures, AXA Strategic Investors, Plug and Play, Chasm Capital Management, Streamlined Ventures, Western Technology Investment (WTI), and Amadeus.