Zerolook, a Swiss artificial intelligence startup based in Zug, has secured €1.6 million (approximately $1.9 million) in pre-seed funding to develop its AI-driven flight-shopping application programming interface. The round was led by London-based venture capital firm Playfair, with participation from Vento Ventures, TrueSight Ventures, Alpha Venture, and several angel investors.
The startup, which was founded in 2025, is addressing a persistent inefficiency in how airlines and travel agencies manage search traffic generated by artificial intelligence tools. According to company co-founder Simone Lini, the current market structure creates misaligned incentives: “Airlines and travel agencies only get paid when someone books, but their technology providers charge them to answer searches and can penalise excessive search volumes. Most searches, however, are someone deciding, not someone booking… Zerolook is changing that.”
Tackling Computational Overhead
The core problem Zerolook targets stems from the explosion of AI-powered travel search tools. As these systems generate increasingly high volumes of queries to airline and travel agency platforms, the computational costs mount rapidly. Travel industry partners face mounting expenses from technology providers who charge per search or penalize platforms that exceed certain query thresholds, creating financial pressure that does not correlate with actual bookings.
Zerolook’s solution leverages machine learning to predict travel itineraries and pricing, effectively filtering and optimizing the search process before queries reach backend systems. This approach aims to reduce unnecessary computational overhead while maintaining search quality for end users.
Building the Team
The funding will be deployed toward two primary objectives. First, Zerolook will launch version 1 of its flight-shopping API, making the core product available to airline and travel agency partners. Second, the company will establish and expand an engineering and machine learning team based in Zurich, positioning itself within Switzerland’s growing technology hub.
The company’s timing aligns with broader trends in European travel technology. Several startups and scale-ups across the continent have recently focused on improving the backend infrastructure that powers consumer-facing travel applications, recognizing that efficiency gains in data processing can translate to cost savings that ripple through the entire value chain.
European Context
Zerolook joins a cohort of Swiss and broader European startups applying machine learning to traditional industry challenges. The pre-seed round reflects investor confidence in solutions that address operational inefficiencies in established sectors. With access to technical talent in the Zurich region and backing from experienced venture firms, the startup is positioned to refine its technology before pursuing larger funding rounds in the coming years.