San-Francisco, US-based Aero, an air travel company that matches air travellers with premium seats or shared charters, raised US$ 20M in Series A funding on 4 March 2021.
Investors: The Series A round was led by Keyframe Capital. Keyframe’s chief investment officer John Rapaport will join the Aero board. Other participants included Cyrus Capital Partners and Expa. The startup had raised US$ 16 million funding in 2019, after which it spent the next few months buying and retrofitting planes.
Purpose of the funding: The funds raised will be utilized by Aero to grow its team and to add more flights. A route between Los Angeles and Cabo San Lucas is scheduled to launch in April.
About Aero
Aero is backed by Garrett Camp’s startup studio Expa and led by Uma Subramanian, CEO of Aero and the former CEO of Airbus’ helicopter service Voom. Aero says that it values ‘curation over endless selections, authenticity over influence and ease over extravagance’. It is offering semi-private air travel which means that you fly out of private terminals, on small and spacious charter planes. Aero has taken vehicles with 37 seats and retrofitted them to hold only 16.
Aero provides a personalized, first-class experience which is delivered by its concierge team. It is currently operating a single route between Los Angeles and Aspen. A one-way ticket costs US$ 1,250. In 2020, the pandemic definitely took a hit on Aero’s business plans, but once the borders reopened and travel resumed in a limited capacity, it began to offer its flights.
What the CEO has to say: “We had a great summer. We sold a lot of seats, and we were gross margin positive in July and August. There is a set of people who want this. Air travel used to be aspirational, something people got dressed up for. We want to bring back the magical part of the travel experience. After all, if you’re the kind of premium traveller who might already spend thousands of dollars a night on a vacation in Amangiri, Utah, it seems a little silly to be spending hours trying to find a low-cost flight out of Salt Lake City.” — Uma Subramanian, CEO of Aero. According to her, the demand for leisure travel is back and will grow as the pandemic comes to an end.
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