With input from the Financial Times and Benzinga.
A little-known airport wellness company just landed a major – and politically connected – backer.
An investment vehicle tied to the Trump family has agreed to pour $31.3 million into XWELL, a firm aiming to roll out AI-powered disease screening at US airports ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
The deal came together in late February through American Ventures, a special-purpose investment group managed by Dominari Securities, which operates out of Trump Tower. The structure is eye-catching: convertible preferred shares that could eventually translate into tens of millions of common shares.
That’s a huge leap for a company that, at the time, was valued at under $3 million.
The bet centers on a specific moment – when global travel surges. XWELL recently teamed up with a startup called PieQ to build out AI-driven screening tools designed to flag infectious diseases in real time. The idea is to manage health risks as millions of travelers flood into the US for major events, starting with the World Cup.
It’s an ambitious pitch. Airports, faster screening, predictive analytics – all wrapped into one system.
XWELL already has a footprint. Through its XpresSpa brand, it runs about two dozen locations in airports across the US, the UAE, and Turkey. It also offers voluntary health screenings for international travelers, sometimes backed by US government contracts.
Still, the company isn’t exactly thriving financially. It posted a $17 million net loss in 2025 on revenue of $29.2 million.
The Trump connection is drawing attention.
It’s unclear whether Eric Trump or Donald Trump Jr. personally invested in this specific deal, but both have been involved with Dominari as advisory board members since late 2024. People familiar with the setup say the family has participated in most American Ventures investments.
This isn’t their only move in the space. The same network has backed other ventures, including a drone company chasing Pentagon contracts.
The XWELL deal fits into a broader pattern – Trump-linked business activity intersecting with sectors tied to government policy, national security, or major public events. Some of those deals have already raised eyebrows, especially when they overlap with international partners and large-scale investments.
For now, the focus is on what happens next.
If XWELL can turn its airport presence into a working, scalable health screening system, the upside could be significant – especially with global travel bouncing back and governments still wary of future pandemics.
If not, it’s another high-risk bet in a space where hype tends to move faster than results.
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