Squad As a Service (SqaaS), a Spain-based AI startup in which Indian travel platform ixigo holds a 45.02% stake, has launched ShellBot — a managed AI agent hosting platform built on OpenClaw. The platform targets individuals, freelancers, SMEs, and enterprises who want private, always-on AI agents without managing their own infrastructure, according to ET TravelWorld.
ixigo acquired the stake in February 2026, and ixigo co-founder Rajnish Kumar told Moneycontrol that the investment is the first in a planned series of global AI acquisitions. “We have carved out an internal fund and will be making more investments in AI companies globally — not just India,” Kumar said.
What ShellBot Does
ShellBot gives each user a dedicated cloud-hosted OpenClaw instance rather than a shared environment. Agents handle email, scheduling, research, coding, and workflow automation across WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, Gmail, and Microsoft Teams with a unified memory layer. Kumar described the setup process as taking 30 seconds, including WhatsApp pairing via QR code, per Moneycontrol.
The platform is model-agnostic — users can connect OpenAI, Google, or other providers with no vendor lock-in, according to ET TravelWorld. Safety features include confirmation prompts before critical actions, granular permission settings, prompt injection protections, and real-time visibility into agent activity with pause and kill controls.
Why It Matters
ShellBot is one of the first commercial “OpenClaw-as-a-service” products to launch with named institutional backing. The timing is pointed: Anthropic cut off Claude subscription coverage for third-party tools like OpenClaw days ago, raising the cost floor for cloud-based agent deployments. A managed hosting layer that abstracts infrastructure while keeping agents model-agnostic directly addresses that friction.
ixigo is already using the underlying technology internally. “The technology powering ShellBot and the underlying agentic system are already being used within ixigo’s own internal AI-driven workflows, and are now productized and made available externally,” Kumar and co-founder Aloke Bajpai said in a joint statement to ET TravelWorld.
ShellBot is available globally with Starter and Pro plans, including introductory pricing for early adopters.