Fetcherr, a revenue management platform that uses algorithms for dynamic airfare pricing, recently closed a $12.5 million funding round led by Left Lane Capital and M-Fund. This brings the company’s total raised to $31 million across equity and debt. Fetcherr is based in Tel Aviv and the funds will be used to support business development, market expansion and growth of its U.S. presence.
The company was founded in 2019 by Shimi Avizmil, Roy Cohen, Uri Yerushalmi and Robby Nissan and is currently led by Cohen as CEO. Coming from the e-commerce industry, Cohen was inspired to use emergent AI technologies to provide airlines with the potential to bolster profits while cutting costs and augmenting these legacy systems that have been used for centuries.
Fetcherr’s platform works by predicting demand and pricing with AI algorithms tailored to each airline company’s demographic. This includes training the algorithms on bookings, flight schedules, availability, fares, events and weather, as well as macro and micro economics from global markets and verticals.
This pricing model is favored by Azul Airlines, which has become a customer of Fetcherr. The algorithm encourages dynamic pricing to help ensure customers get the best rates possible, while taking into account airline costs, inventories, customer surveys and other factors.
Fetcherr’s dynamic pricing system should not be confused with a recent trend of unfair discrimination in pricing by algorithms. This has encouraged what is known as “implicit collusion” between firms, increasing prices across the board. However, Fetcherr promises to benefit airlines, not just customers, by removing manpower from updating fares across different channels, and predicting demand in volatile times.
Ultimately, Fetcherr aims to be a disruption within the airline industry, transitioning from traditional revenue systems to those based on deep learning methodologies. With its latest funding, Fetcherr looks to integrate the technology into current IT infrastructures and provide cloud-based, user-centric custom dashboards. Only time will tell if Fetcherr lives up to this bold promise.
