Wheel the World Closes $11M Series A — And It's Just the Beginning for Accessible Travel

In 2017, Alvaro Silberstein became the first person with quadriplegia to complete the W Trek through Torres del Paine in Patagonia. He did it in a specialized wheelchair, surrounded by terrain that most people assumed would be impossible for him to navigate. Alvaro, along with his lifelong friend (and co-founder of Wheel the World, and others, completed the trek. This story began a wave of people with disabilities wanting to do the same adventure. The realization Alvaro and Camilo had was that there was a major gap between accessibility info and travel options.

That realization became Wheel the World.

Today, the company Alvaro built with co-founder and COO Camilo Navarro has closed an $11 million Series A round — and the momentum behind it signals something much bigger than a funding milestone.

"Accessibility in travel has never been just an infrastructure problem. It has been an information problem."

The Problem Was Never the Mountain

For too long, the travel industry treated accessibility as a compliance issue. A checkbox. Something you addressed after the real work was done.

Wheel the World has always seen it differently. "Accessibility in travel has never been just an infrastructure problem," Alvaro says. "It has been an information problem."

That distinction matters. There are millions of hotels, attractions, and experiences around the world that are genuinely accessible, but travelers with disabilities have no reliable way to know that in advance. The result is uncertainty, last-minute cancellations, and a $120 billion travel market that the industry is leaving largely untapped.

Over the past several years, Wheel the World has been solving that problem systematically. The company has built a proprietary Accessibility Mapping System — a mobile app used by trained mappers to collect more than 200 data points at each property, including:

• Bed height
• Door width
• Entrance type
• Roll-in shower dimensions
• Restroom details
• And much more

The kind of specific, verified detail that actually allows a wheelchair user to plan a trip with confidence.

To date, that system has produced verified data across more than 140 destinations and 8,000 travel services worldwide.

What the $11M Round Makes Possible

The $11 million Series A — which includes $3.5 million in new capital — is co-led by Enable Ventures, a premier disability tech venture capital firm, with participation from Kayyak Ventures, Vulcano, Weboost, Samaritan Partners, ImpactaVC, and Miles Partnership, as well as strong follow-on support from existing investors and strategic leaders from the travel and hospitality industry, including Erik Blachford, former Expedia CEO, and Gillian Tans, former Booking.com CEO.

This will accelerate three primary things:

• First, expanding the Accessibility Verified program with Destination Marketing Organizations across the U.S. and Europe.
• Second, developing advanced AI capabilities that allow travelers to plan trips in a genuinely personalized way.
• Third, scaling distribution of verified accessibility data across travel platforms, destination channels, and emerging AI-powered tools.

"If we consider AI as an engine, the fuel of that engine is data," Alvaro says. "We have been collecting detailed, reliable, and verified accessibility data for years across more than 200 destinations — with a level of structure, depth, and rigor that now allows us to deliver AI-powered experiences where travelers with disabilities can plan with clarity and confidence, knowing exactly what to expect."

Regina Kline, Founder and Managing Partner of Enable Ventures, puts it plainly: "Wheel the World is building foundational AI infrastructure for the future of travel."

Already Happening: Grand Rapids Shows What's Possible

The vision isn't hypothetical. It's already live.

Earlier this year, Wheel the World partnered with Experience Grand Rapids and Disability Advocates of Kent County to launch the first AI-powered accessibility travel tool of its kind. Travelers can visit Grand Rapid's travel page and ask the tool specific questions: which hotels have roll-in showers, which restaurants have step-free entry, what the terrain surfaces are like at local parks — and get real, verified answers. The tool draws on Wheel the World's verified assessments, reviews, and traveler-submitted information. It covers all disabilities including mobility, vision, hearing, and sensory needs.

It is what Camilo described at The Phocuswright Conference in November: a future where travelers start their planning conversations with AI — and actually get useful answers. "AI without data is worthless," he said. If someone asks ChatGPT whether a specific hotel bed is the right height for a transfer, they won't get an answer. That's the gap Wheel the World is built to close.

Grand Rapids also earned Accessibility Verified status through this partnership, joining Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, and Lansing as verified accessible destinations in Michigan. It's a model that Wheel the World aims to bring to destinations across the U.S. and Europe.

Why This Matters for the Industry

Travelers with disabilities and seniors represent the fastest-growing segments in global travel. More than one billion people worldwide live with a disability. And as Alvaro has pointed out, that number only grows — because all of us will need accessibility at some point in our lives.

The industry has been slow to recognize this as opportunity rather than obligation. Wheel the World is changing that framing directly. The Accessibility Verified program doesn't just help travelers, but it gives destinations and hospitality businesses a measurable way to market their accessibility, attract a loyal and underserved audience, and turn verified data into a genuine competitive advantage.

"We're not just helping people navigate the world, we're helping the world become more navigable." - Alvaro Silberstein

What Comes Next

The goal, as Wheel the World scales its platform, is straightforward: make accessibility information as standard and expected as price, availability, or location in travel. Not a special section. Not a separate category. Just part of how travel works.

For destinations and hospitality businesses, that means the window to get ahead of this is now. Verified accessibility data is becoming infrastructure and the destinations that build it first will be the ones travelers with disabilities trust, return to, and recommend.

For travelers, it means the planning experience is about to get meaningfully better. More verified destinations. More AI-powered tools that actually know whether a hotel will work or to plan an accessible itinerary. More trips will go as expected.

That's what Wheel the World is building. And with $11 million behind it, the pace is picking up.

Thank you to our investors and partners who made this possible: Enable Ventures, Kayyak Ventures, Vulcano, Weboost, Samaritan Partners, ImpactaVC, and Miles Partnership, as well as Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia, and Gillian Tans, former CEO of Booking.com, for their continued support.

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