Fetcherr is an algo-based company that transforms the travel industry with its groundbreaking Generative Pricing Engine (GPE), the first of its kind to leverage AI for real-time, market-responsive pricing decisions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Fetcherr CEO and co-founder Roy Cohen to learn more about the company.
Roy Cohen’s Background
Cohen’s background is in e-commerce and innovation, with over 20 years of experience in operational management and product strategy based on cross-organizational vision. And Cohen said:
“I have experience managing large-scale operations, product and business development with global companies, while my co-founders bring expertise in algorithmic trading and digitizing legacy architectures. Together, we leverage technology for revenue optimization and process enhancement. My e-commerce experience, especially in omnichannel strategies, complements their technical skills, allowing us to develop techniques that minimize costs for both customers and our company operations.”
Formation Of Fetcherr
How did the idea for the company come together? Cohen shared:
“Fetcherr was founded in 2019 by experts in deep learning, algo-trading, e-commerce and digitization of legacy architecture. The concept for Fetcherr was born from the desire to apply advanced AI metrics, similar to those used in algo-trading, to more traditional industries such as aviation. We specifically targeted the aviation sector for its receptiveness to tech innovation and the significant opportunity it presented to showcase the effectiveness of our solutions.”
Royal Air Maroc Partnership
After asking Cohen about the Royal Air Maroc partnership and how Royal Air Maroc be using their technology, Cohen replied:
“Out of 300 contenders in Royal Air Maroc’s second Digital Open Innovation Program, Fetcherr emerged as the winner in the revenue management category. This achievement was a result of RAM executives being impressed by our system’s capabilities and performance. We are just embarking on the production pilot, marking the beginning of an exciting partnership. Through this partnership, Royal Air Maroc is now piloting our Generative Pricing Engine (GPE), a first-of-its-kind fully automated AI pricing technology.”
“Royal Air Maroc will implement our advanced pricing engine, the GPE, enabling full automation and high-performance analytics in their revenue management departments. Our GPE is the industry’s first market dynamics generative AI model that generates the best market moves to increase or decrease prices based on the predicted actions of all market variables.”
“The technology enables uniquely granular high-frequency pricing, inventory management, and publishing capabilities in one complete system that fully automates processes – from pricing to publishing – to optimize operations, save manpower by publishing fares in real-time, and support revenue generation. This will lead to new strategic opportunities, better optimization, and improved revenue for Royal Air Maroc.”
“This partnership with Royal Air Maroc, the largest airline in Morocco, is a significant milestone for us. It demonstrates the versatility of our AI across different airline models and geographic markets, setting a precedent for future innovations in the airline industry.”
Collaboration With Virgin Atlantic And Azul Airlines
You’re also partnered with Virgin Atlantic and Azul Airlines. Can you talk about how your technology is impacting these airlines? Cohen noted:
“After more than a year of using our generative AI pricing engine, Azul Airlines is showing remarkable results in significant revenue uplift and workflow optimization. Virgin Atlantic is using our technology to fully automate their entire process – from pricing to inventory management to publishing. We can see that when the entire process is fully automated, the tech arbitrage reveals itself and the result is significant revenue uplift.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Cohen explained:
“Our core product, the Large Market Model (LMM), accurately forecasts market demand and trends. It features the Generative Pricing Engine (GPE), the Generative Inventory Engine (GIE), and soon the Generative Network Engine (GNE), enhancing business decision-making and exploiting technological and financial arbitrage.”
“One of the key implications of the LMM initiative is its potential to significantly enhance business automation. With the LMM’s insights and predictive capabilities, businesses can automate strategic decision-making processes based on accurate forecasts and deep market understanding. The LMM will serve as a cornerstone in the future of AI-driven business automation, enabling companies to navigate market dynamics with unprecedented foresight and precision.”
Challenges Faced
Has Cohen faced any specific bottlenecks in his sector of work recently? Cohen acknowledged:
“Our main challenge as a startup has been meeting the high demand for our technology with limited resources, which is a testament to our cutting-edge technology. We’ve addressed this by expanding our team and optimizing our deployment processes. In 2023, we opened our first U.S. office, hired former J.P. Morgan Chase executive Ziv Gafni as President and General Manager of New Markets, and appointed several aviation industry veterans to our advisory board.”
Evolution Of Fetcherr’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Cohen noted:
“We began with the Generative Pricing Engine and progressed to inventory and network optimization. Each step involved enhancing our LMM and expanding data usage. We’re now integrating Large Language Models (LLM) with our LMM for advanced analysis and automation, changing the aviation industry one flight at a time.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Cohen cited:
“In a little over a year, we have onboarded and proven outstanding results for 3 major airlines, completed a Pre-Series B funding round, been recognized as one of PhocusWright’s Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023 and have been named the World’s Best Travel Tech Startup and the Middle East’s Best Travel Tech Startup by the World Travel Tech Awards 2023. We have also expanded our global footprint with expansion into the U.S., grown our team and advisory board, and are continuing to innovate our technology.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Cohen about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“At the 2023 World Aviation Festival, the biggest event in the aviation industry, we showcased along with Virgin Atlantic the first AI-based fully automated system for the entire pricing-inventory-publishing process. Another amazing innovation is the ability of the system to deliver insights through language models just like ChatGPT.”
“The synergy between Fetcherr’s AI pricing engine and inventory management significantly increased our client’s revenue compared to traditional pricing engines by exploiting the tech arbitrage of legacy systems.”
You can see the video of the mutual presentation here:”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Fetcherr from its competition? Cohen affirmed:
“Our approach is unique in that we focus on decision-making systems, not just decision support, enhancing results and exploiting arbitrage in ways similar to the transformation seen in the finance industry with algorithmic trading since the 1990s. We also emphasize seamlessly integrating high-level AI into legacy infrastructures, boosting their digitization process.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Cohen concluded:
“Our primary goal is to expand the reach of our LMM into new verticals, markets, and industries, such as the retail and financial sectors. We aim to assist successful companies in becoming even more successful by leveraging our advanced AI engines. With our proven success in the aviation industry, we’re looking at new industries, new markets, and achieving new heights, driven by our innovative technology.”
