HomeFundingBritish private jet charter aggregator PrivateFly raises £2 million

British private jet charter aggregator PrivateFly raises £2 million

PrivateFly.com, a leading online aggregator for private jet charter, today announces its plans for expansion, following a successful investment round of £2 million generated from eight private investors.

The St Albans-based company, whose network accesses over 7,000 aircraft based globally, says the funds will be used to roll-out to new international markets, and for significant usability upgrades across all its platforms, including mobile apps, and enhanced real-time integration of pricing and availability with aircraft operators. PrivateFly was launched in 2008 by a husband-and-wife co-founder team, Adam Twidell and Carol Cork, who sold their house for initial seed funding.

Richard Carrick, PrivateFly’s chairman, commented: “The recession has been a catalyst for change in the private aviation industry, with increased cost-consciousness creating a clear demand for more price transparency and immediacy. PrivateFly.com has used this to its advantage, delivering significant enhancements in response speed, price and ease of use within the charter segment.”

He continued: “The successful fundraising demonstrates investor confidence in the industry, particularly the ad-hoc charter market. Other private aviation segments, such as fractional ownership, have struggled post-recession due to the customer requirement of upfront cash commitment. Challenging market conditions give greater opportunity for profit and PrivateFly.com is a highly-scalable, low-risk, low-cost investment opportunity with a lean, online business model and aggressive pricing strategy. It ticked all the investor boxes”.

Adam Twidell, PrivateFly’s CEO and co-founder, added: “The race is now on, with other players testing different disruptive technologies to turn this traditional market on his head. The traditional broker with legacy business practices is being threatened by new business models, just as online travel aggregators challenged high street agents several years ago. The opportunity for change is significant and PrivateFly can now accelerate forward to our goal of delivering ultimate choice and agility to the global private aviation customer of tomorrow”.

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Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr is the "Editor in Chief" of EU-Startups.com and started the blog in October 2010. He is excited about Europe's future, passionate about new business ideas and lives in Barcelona (Spain).
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