Tom Brady advantages Wheels Up.
Source: Wheel’s Up
Wheels Up, the private aviation start-up that counts Tom Brady and Serena Williams as colleagues, said Friday it completed a $128 million round of funding that values the company $1.1 billion.
The pooling marks an escalation in the air war between private aviation players to become leaders in a new era of consolidation and technological change that is remaking the effort. New digital-booking apps and scheduling programs have made booking a private plane cheaper and easier than by any chance. Industry giants like VistaJet, Directional Aviation and now Wheels Up are vying to become the dominant players and attract a looser customer base of affluent flyers.
Wheels Up’s Class D equity capital raise included Franklin Templeton, which co-led the round with capitals and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management & Research, along with other investors.
Wheels Up fall and CEO Kenny Dichter said the funding will be used for acquisitions, investments in sales and marketing and building the company’s technology plank.
Wheels Up recently bought Travel Management Company, which operates a fleet of light jets to complement Discs Up’s existing fleet of King Air turboprops, Citation midsize jets and Citation X super-midsize aircraft.
Dichter said coming investments will be “asset light” — meaning less focused on buying planes and more focused on amplifying its digital platform to make it easier for anyone to book a flight whenever and wherever they want.
“Three years from now, we fall short of to be the Airbnb, the Open Table, the Hotel Tonight of the private aviation space,” Dichter said.
Wheels Up has attracted more than 6,000 colleagues, with its marketing focused heavily on sports star members and brand ambassadors like Williams and Brady as okay as professional golfer Rickie Fowler and Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt.
Dichter said that with the effort poised for a shakeout, there will be a smaller group of ultimate winners.
“We see the digitization and the digital marketplace as a winner-take-most break,” he said.