🚀 BIG NEWS: Pangea & Flaire are joining forces

Hi Everyone,

I’m THRILLED to share that Pangea has acquired Flaire, an AI-native social discovery engine for trusted travel recommendations.

👉 Read my Announcement & Skift’s Exclusive Interview Here

This acquisition brings Flaire’s “Place Genome,” the product of more than $6M of AI R&D investment into our platform, allowing us to accelerate our mission to build the “Strava for Travel”

Flaire joins Overlap & Nomadago as our third acquisition as we continue to consolidate the best travel tech products & communities into a single, high-utility platform to finally create an enduring category leader for social travel.

Travel recs are still deeply fragmented, scattered across texts, notes, and shared docs, making it hard to discover the places and experiences that actually matter. And while AI has made it easier to generate options, it hasn’t solved the real problem: trust.

Flaire changes that. Their Place Genome maps destinations based on how they’re actually experienced, not just how they’re categorized, combining the speed of AI with recommendations grounded in real people and shared experiences.

If you’re coming over from Flaire, welcome! I’m Matt, the Founder of Pangea.

We’re building what I think travel has been missing: The “Strava for Travel”

One place to track where you’ve been, see where your friends are going, coordinate plans, and actually explore the world, together. #LiveYourBucketlist #HackSerendipity

I’ve been to 118+ countries and travel full-time, living the lifestyle we are building for, and am on a mission to visit every country in the world with as many friends as possible.

Pangea exists because nothing out there really worked for me, they all fell short (and most also charged a fee to use them).

So, I decided to build it, and was stubborn enough to do it even though a lot of people have tried (and failed) because ultimately it needs to happen.

This acquisition isn’t just about better recommendations-it’s about how travel actually works. Travel isn’t just about the places you go, it’s about the people you experience them with.

Pangea has always focused on:

We help you figure out where/when to go based on the places in your bucket list and where your people will be. We optimize so that you can share more experiences with the people you care about IRL.

#ExploreTheWorldTogether

We experimented a bit recommendations early on, some of you probably remember… it was a bit rough 😅

We chose to focus on trip coordination first. But recs were always part of the vision. And Flaire brings the missing piece:

👉 What’s actually worth doing, and why

Nothing will break or go away. Both Pangea & Flaire will run side-by-side for the next 3-6 months.

During this time, our combined team will continue to actively improve both products:

Later this year, Flaire’s recommendation engine will roll into Pangea, and we’ll bring all of the data from both apps together into one platform.

If you have accounts in both apps, they’ll merge together cleanly at that point (just be sure to use the same phone # when setting them up for an easy transition)

For now, I encourage:

Everything you’ve created, your lists, recommendations, places, network & profile will come with you when we pull everything together later this year.

As part of the merge, we’ve also updated the privacy policy for both apps to make things clearer and consistent across platforms.

Pangea has always been built by a unique mix of people, but we share a common curiosity, desire to explore the world, and share experiences with the community we build along the way.

From digital nomads, to extreme travelers, solo backpackers to social professionals, Pangea is built for everyone who shares these values.

One of my favorite parts of the job is getting to know the amazing community we’ve built through meetups & trips around the world. We even co-hosted NomadWeek this year in Cape Town to bring together our community IRL. It was epic.

To everyone from Flaire, I’m excited to welcome you as we keep building this together, and I hope you are able join us somewhere in the world!

We’re moving fast. Keep an eye out for our traveler newsletters:

Here are the highlights from the last few community newsletters in case you want to plug in immediately!

A lot of people see acquisitions as the end, because often the products they love slow down or disappear, but this is the opposite.

It gives us more resources, more speed, and a real shot at solving something that’s been broken in travel for a long time (and something I’ve dedicated this chapter of my life to solving for travelers everywhere).

There is a lot still to do, but together, Flaire & Pangea are super well positioned to transform the way we travel.

If you ever have ideas for either app, feel free to reply to this email, I’d love to chat.

And I hope to meet many of you in Central Asia (May-Jul), ETF Bangkok (Oct), NomadWeek Cape Town (Feb 2027), or wherever else our paths cross in the world!

Excited for the next chapter 🚀

Matt Gray
Founder & CEO of Pangea
118/197 Countries + 7 Continents Traveled
Follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn