Travel agency Fora announced a $60 million Series D round led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures, valuing the company at $1 billion.
Founded in 2021, Fora is a two-part platform. We make it easy for people to become travel agents by providing the infrastructure to support client communication and travel planning. You can also find and connect with advisors when planning your honeymoon or family trip to destinations like Costa Rica or Thailand. Other investors in this latest round include Insight Partners and Thrive Capital. The company says it has raised $138.5 million in funding to date.
Part of the new funding will be used to expand Fora's AI assistant, Via, to help travel agents perform tedious administrative tasks like research and itinerary creation on the platform. The hope is that human travel agents using the platform will instead be able to spend more time building customer relationships, and that using Fora's AI will increase, rather than replace, human productivity.
Fora says agents on its platform have booked $3 billion worth of travel since its launch, and the majority of agent users are new to travel advice. The company also hopes to use the funding for hiring and growth in other travel categories, such as cruises and airline tickets.
This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Fora's name in the last paragraph.