# Open World Accelerator

> Open World Accelerator is a VC fund in Bellevue backing Travel, Rental and Leisure. See 12 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Bellevue, United States
- Total investments: 12
- Last investment: Jan 2023
- Lead investor: 100%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/expediagrouplatam
- Website: https://www.expediagroup.com/open-world-accelerator

Open World Accelerator is an initiative designed to advance innovation in the travel industry by helping startups and small and medium businesses (SMBs).

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Travel | 8 | 67% |
| Rental | 2 | 17% |
| Leisure | 2 | 17% |
| Tourism | 2 | 17% |
| Software | 2 | 17% |

32 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Grant | 10 | 83% |
| Non-equity Assistance | 1 | 8% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 6 | 50% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 17% |
| Sweden | 1 | 8% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SociAbility | SociAbility is a Mobile app helping disabled people find accessible places. Sociability helps businesses better appreciate which barriers they have, what problems they’re creating and how to fix them. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| Be My Eyes | Be My Eyes is a suite of products designed on a simple premise: to harness the power of technology and human connection to assist people who are blind or have low vision to lead more independent lives. With the press of a button, the app establishes a live video connection between blind and low vision users and either sighted volunteers, companyrepresentatives or sighted co-workers. With over 5 million users across 150 countries, Be My Eyes has become the largest online community for the blind and visually impaired.Be My Eyes is on a quest to revolutionize accessible support. We are paving the way with industry leaders like Microsoft, Google, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, LinkedIn, Department of Health and Social of UK, Twitter and others, all of whom are using Be My Eyes to connect with their customers, members, citizens and employees in a more inclusive and meaningful way.The app harnesses the power of generosity, technology and human connection to help blind and visually impaired individuals lead more independent lives. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| flywallet | Fintech based Travel App | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| iAccess Innovations | iAccess Innovations, is developing a mobile application that will allow the mobility impaired as well as their family and friends to rate and review establishments based on how accessible they are. Pulling from Google's API, we have created a location service based application that will let users give 1 - 5 star ratings on how accessible eachestablishments parking, entrance, seating, and bathrooms are for people with wheelchairs, walkers, etc. Our hope is that we will not only help people be more conscientious of their companions by allocating this information in one central location but we hope that eventually establishments with low ratings will try to improve their establishments parking lots, entrances, bathrooms, and seating arrangements to accommodate everyone. Eventually we plan to build integrations with airlines, hotels and sporting venues to provide our users everything they need to create stress free, memorable moments with their loved ones. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| Handiscover | Handiscover is the first community based Holiday accommodation-booking website, dedicated to people with special needs and disabilities. At the core of Handiscover lies a unique classification system which allows users to select accommodation based on their different levels of mobility/physical disability. It was founded by SebastienArchambeaud in 2014, a father to a boy with a muscle disease. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| misterb&b | Misterb&b is an operator of a property rental marketplace used to connect travelers and hosts in the LGBTQ community. Its marketplace offers a searchable database of short-term rentals of homes, rooms, and apartments for its users as per their preferred locations that enable LGBTQ individuals and allies to monetize from their spare space whileproviding affordable houses in a hassle-free manner.Misterb&b was established in 2014 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| misterb&b | Misterb&b is an operator of a property rental marketplace used to connect travelers and hosts in the LGBTQ community. Its marketplace offers a searchable database of short-term rentals of homes, rooms, and apartments for its users as per their preferred locations that enable LGBTQ individuals and allies to monetize from their spare space whileproviding affordable houses in a hassle-free manner.Misterb&b was established in 2014 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| SoloTrvlr | SoloTrvlr is an online platform with trusted travel advice — by women, for women and it is founded with a desire to make it easier and more accessible for women to explore the world. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| GeoSure | Provider of global safety information intended to support critical decisions for the worldwide travel community and risk metrics for the insurance and financial services verticals. The company's unique public/private partnership model and API-as-a-Service delivers personalized "risk temperatures" and crowdsourced reportingcapabilities for anyone, anytime worldwide. This enables millions of users to gauge potential vulnerabilities such as physical harm, theft, women's safety, LGBTQ+ safety, political, environmental and health/med related risks at the neighborhood level. With millions of engaged users accessing GeoSure's module(s) and providing localized insights, GeoSure is now the world's most trusted risk scoring standard. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |
| Becoming rentABLE | Becoming rentABLE is a platform for short-term rentals that focuses on easily accessible properties. | $20K | Grant | Jan 24, 2023 |  |

10 of 12 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- Aleph One Ventures — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Untours Foundation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/untours-foundation) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Scottish Enterprise](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/scottish-enterprise) — VC Fund
- [Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT)](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/foundation-pour-l-innovation-technologique) — VC Fund
- [Business Finland](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/tekes) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Open World Accelerator invest in?

Open World Accelerator invests primarily in Travel, Rental and Leisure startups, most often at Grant and Non-equity Assistance stage. Most of the 12 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Open World Accelerator last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Open World Accelerator closed in Jan 2023. Shizune tracks 12 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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