Headout, the New York-based tours and
activities marketplace, has acquired Dabble,
a Y Combinator-backed startup that creates solutions to bridge the digital and physical
worlds.
Terms of the
acquisition have not been disclosed.
Dabble works
with computer vision, artificial intelligence and spatial computing to build
applications for gaming, indoor navigation, training and more.
In
announcing the acquisition, Headout said it will use Dabble’s capabilities to
build “a new generation of AI-powered travel experiences for Headout users.”
Subscribe to our newsletter below
“The Dabble
team sits at the cutting edge of the intersection of AI, computer vision and
new media – a combination that makes them perfectly placed to help accelerate
our mission of getting everyone to head out to the world’s best real life
experiences,” said Varun Khona, Headout co-founder and CEO.
“We’re huge believers in the positive impact of the age of AI. We foresee a
world with improved human productivity and creativity freeing us up to make
time for things that truly matter. From our very first meeting with the Dabble
team, it was clear that we share a common ethos in leveraging AI to make a more
human, a more joyful and a more magical world. I can’t wait to share and show
some of the technology we are working on to make the best real life experiences
even better in the coming months.”
Headout said
Dabble will help to build new capabilities for both the discovery and in-person
delivery of experiences. Dabble was founded in 2021 and is based in Toronto.
“What made
us swipe right on Headout was our shared vision that AI can transform the way
people experience the physical world around them,” said Neil Mathew, co-founder
and CEO of Dabble.
“With recent breakthroughs in large language models, computer vision and
immersive content, a disruptive transformation in real life experiences is
inevitable, and Headout is perfectly positioned to lead the charge as a managed
marketplace curating only the world’s best real life experiences. We were
impressed with the execution, ambition and resilience we saw in the entire
Headout team and we’re thrilled to become a part of what is now our collective
journey.”
Founded in
2015, Headout provides experiences in 125 cities around the world and has
raised more than $60 million, with its most
recent funding round a $30 million Series B in 2022.
