Desti, the smartest travel guide on the iPad, today announced that the company has added $1M in funding to their seed round from previous investors, including Carmel, SRI International and Horizon Ventures. This latest funding comes as an extension of the company’s initial seed raise in October 2011, bringing Desti’s total funding to $2.55M. Desti is available and free to download from the iTunes Store here.

Desti uses natural language processing and Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA) technology derived from SRI International to deliver custom travel recommendations for local travel, including hotels, events, attractions, and restaurants. Currently in public beta, the company will use the funding to grow their presence and content focus targeted initially at California and Nevada before expanding to cover the entire west coast by Q1 of 2013.

“We are proud to announce this addition to our seed round from Carmel, SRI and Horizon Ventures,” said Nadav Gur, co-founder and CEO of Desti. “The investment will enable us to quickly expand our content and coverage to surrounding states while still providing the best recommendations for local day and weekend trips.”

With Desti, users can use the app just like they would interact with a travel agent. Users ask specific travel questions and Desti is able to build out travel experiences specifically tailored to their request. Over time, Desti learns each user’s unique travel interests and preferences and adapts recommendations specifically to them.

Desti launched into public beta in November 2012, focusing their efforts on the Northern California area. The company has since added thousands of carefully vetted sources of high-quality content and built numerous new features, including an in-app map display of nearby destinations.

For more information, visit www.desti.com.
To download Desti, visit the iTunes app store.

About Desti

Desti is the smartest travel guide for finding fun things to do and see in your local area. Delivered as an all-in-one app for travel discovery and planning, Desti helps you plan and research vacations leveraging natural language search technology and artificial intelligence presented in a user-friendly interface. Instead of sifting through hundreds of search results and reading countless travel reviews, users can plan a trip holistically -- where to stay, what to do, where to dine, all beautifully presented and immediately available at the swipe of a finger for browsing, booking or sharing with friends. That’s true travel nirvana.

Founded in 2011, Desti is located in the Bay Area. Connect with us at Desti.com or Facebook.com/getdesti