Copilot is an AI assistant for road trip planning, while Sēkr is a new startup offering its mobile app to outdoorsy and camping individuals. The company says that with 100,000+ registered users on website and mobile app.

Company Background This company was founded in 2016 to help the "van life" community identify and locate campsites based on their specific requirements, like shower facility availability, restrooms, overnight van parking, or free Wi-Fi. The application enables users to connect with other travelers to venture out and share activities such as hiking, rock climbing, or skiing with each other.

After being acquired last December 2023 by Peace Vans, a van company, this startup has a new leadership at its helm. Sēkr was once a user of the app for seven years but had noticed in the previous year that the app had become dormant. He learned that the founders of the startup were going to unwind the app because an inexperienced change in global fundraising climates late in 2022 meant the company had a solid base of users. Sitner, former Microsoft product manager, was asked to buy Sēkr in November 2023.

Fast-forward eight months. Here, the startup is now looking to help people better plan the journeys to their destinations and update the app with better features staying original to Sēkr's mission.

The newest AI-powered road trip planning tool from Sēkr combines natural language processing with proprietary data culled from its community of users, who have left reviews and ratings about specific places. Copilot also draws on publicly available data when it creates road trip itineraries. The tool leans on OpenAI's GPT, Meta's Llama, and others.

For those millions of people traveling this summer by van, car or RV, Sēkr Copilot will make it easier to skip hundreds of hours of trip planning and handily deliver a better itinerary right away," Sitner said in a statement. "AI isn't gonna give you that panoramic sunset, but it's gonna help you over that infamous planner's block, set you up for those serendipitous moments, and connect you to an authentic road trip experience co-created by Sēkr's amazing community of devoted users."

Accessing Copilot is done through a new "Trip Planning" tab on the startup's website or app. Upon opening the tool, users are invited to answer some questions of where they are going and what they are looking for. The tool then displays an itinerary with editable legs of the trip, which include camping destinations, food, and outdoor activities.

The idea behind Copilot is the concept of assisting travelers in discovering unique places that, without such resource, they would not have discovered on their own. For instance, the tool may encourage people to check out a taco truck parked by the side of a dusty Baja road that users claimed offered better fare than a five-star-rated Denny's outside Los Angeles. Or, the app encourages users to explore not-so-well-tread, unmapped BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land with views overlooking scenery. Sēkr is available on iOS and Android. The apps basic features are free to use. You can unlock premium features such as offline maps, event discount codes, and unlimited messaging and searching for $4.99/month.

This startup has raised $2.25 million, led by Storyteller Overland. Backing the company is a who's who of prominent venture funds and angel investors, including Backstage Capital, Techstars, Ad Astra Ventures and Crescent Ridge Ventures and Andy Ballester co-founder of GoFundMe.