Indian origin tech entrepreneur to launch luxury travel concierge platform Vaultfy

Technology entrepreneur Vatsal Desai, who has a background spanning product development, manufacturing, mergers and acquisitions, business operations and high-growth startups is planning the global launch of Vaultfy, a luxury travel concierge platform centered around an in-house assistant named Alfred, who orchestrates user requests sent via messages or voice notes to combine fragmented industries into a single system.

Currently in the final testing phase, with around 300 users ahead of a wider global rollout, Desai is planning to launch the Vaultfy app on September 17.

“We are currently going through due diligence with two major banks regarding potential partnership opportunities,” said Desai, founder and CEO, Vaultfy in an interview with ET.


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“Vaultfy is my first startup specifically focused on the luxury sector. My previous experience has primarily been across startups and M&A rather than luxury,” he added.

Desai said that all supplier partnerships are secured and agreed upon with industry experts operating for 15 to 20 years, such as a global yacht company with a roster of 5,000 yachts across 12 to 13 cities or specialized chefs from Michelin-star restaurants.

He added that the app will cut out middlemen and brokers, and will allow users to speak directly with companies, preventing inflated pricing traditionally charged to wealthy clients.

“The concierge industry is super fragmented. So, we thought of a unified system which brought everything in one place. So, essentially this is exactly what we are focused on,” said Desai.

“We're trying to kind of combine all of those fragmented industries into one unified system where the user simply sends a message or sends a voice note and that particular request is simply dealt with straight away. What we are also trying to do is come back to the user within a particular time frame,” he added.

Subscription options for Vaultfy will be priced at £350 per month or £3,500 per year, with family household and family office packages planned after an initial organic traction of 1,500 users. Desai outlined the global launch strategy, prioritizing the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and India regions first, followed by the Far East, Australia, Africa, and South America.

Referring to the differentiation between AI led and human concierge services, Desai emphasised on ‘significant’ cost savings, citing exclusive events like Formula One priced at £15,000 compared to the standard £20,000 to £25,000 charged elsewhere.

He said users can trust the in-house artificial intelligence assistant Alfred, which operates under strict internal rules, to remember preferences. There is also an SOS security feature in the app through a partnership with an extraction specialist agency that can provide emergency response calls within 30 seconds for users in high-risk zones such as Ukraine or Iraq.

He said three months of testing showed user demand for 'comprehensive' all-in-one travel booking solutions, integrating transport, food, hotels, and activities. He said Vaultfy covers all global cities outside of sanctioned countries and can arrange bespoke experiences such as playing tennis with Maria Sharapova.

He said Vaultfy will not partner with other concierge companies as those companies operate on human-intensive models filled with friction, positioning Alfred as an ‘active executor’ rather than a ‘passive chatbot’ like ChatGPT. Furthermore, he shared upcoming November and December platform additions, including a one-month physical boot camp at the Shaolin school in China and a fighter jet experience with the United States Air Force subject to individual availability.

“We're just making sure that everything is watertight. We are looking at a couple of bank partnerships, one in Asia and one in the EU or UK region, where we'll be essentially partnering with the bank for a backend B2B layer where they can use our systems for their high networth plans,” said Desai. Desai said the app will offer experiences through suppliers who are ‘super niche.’